ON ST. PRISCUS OF CAPUA, BISHOP AND MARTYR,
AT CAPUA IN ITALY.
First century, perhaps under Nero.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Priscus, bishop and M., at Capua in Italy. (S.)
Written by J. S.
§ I. The Saint's ancient veneration: he is believed to be one of Christ's disciples and the first bishop of Capua.
[ ] The Roman Martyrology on this day announces two Prisci at Capua, both bishops, the one a martyr, The Martyrologies announce St. Priscus as an ancient disciple of Christ, the other a confessor. The martyr, of whom we here treat, it records in these words: At Capua on the Aquarian way, of St. Priscus the martyr, who was one of the ancient disciples of Christ. Exactly the same Ado and Usuard inserted into their Martyrologies, and the old Roman, more ancient than they, has thus: At Capua, of Priscus the martyr, of those ancient disciples of Christ. The like is read in the supplements to Bede, in our house before volume 2 of March, page XXX, in this manner: At Capua the birthday of St. Priscus, who was one of the ancient disciples of Christ. Elsewhere, who is said to have been one of the seventy-two disciples. In all the Hieronymian transcripts too the memory of the same Saint is found, but briefly. Some add the title of martyr and the place; others omit either the one or the other, or both. In the Corbie one there also seems to be added a companion, Magnilis, who in all the others is omitted. Receive the words: At Capua Aquiria the birthday of St. Priscus the martyr, of Magnilis. Hence Florentinius notes thus: We owe Magnilius the companion of St. Priscus entirely to the Corbie manuscript, for elsewhere he does not appear to me. But I would not dare to assert that by this word a companion of St. Priscus is designated, or any other Saint of whom I find nothing anywhere: for those transcripts are too corrupt and faulty. All the ancient Calendars of the church of Capua which Michele Monaco published in the Sanctuarium likewise celebrate the memory of St. Priscus the martyr. The feast of the same Saint is marked on the Kalends of September in the Codex of the Sacraments published by Thomasius, with the title of Martyr. Hence the ancient cult of St. Priscus is abundantly established.
[2] Peter de Natalibus, bishop of Equilium, in book 8, and Peter de Natalibus makes him Christ's host: chapter 17, has the following about our Saint: Priscus the disciple was one of the ancient disciples of Christ; although he is not found among the names of the 72 disciples which were written down by the abbot Dorotheus. For he is asserted to have been that householder in whose house Christ caused the pasch to be prepared for Himself, and in whose upper room He reclined with His disciples and washed their feet, as Damasus says. He, after the Ascension
of the Lord, coming to Rome with the apostle Peter, preached the Gospel in the parts of Campania. And he was laid to rest at Capua on the Aquarian way on the Kalends of September, as Ado says. Thus far the praised bishop of Equilium, and nothing more about St. Priscus in this place. But in book XI, chapter 130, num. 233, he clearly designates the same man under the name of Sixtus in these words: Sixtus bishop of Capua, the first prelate of that city, fell asleep at that same city on the Aquarian way on the Kalends of September. He does not call him martyr, and the word fell asleep hints at a natural rather than a violent death. But of the others who asserted him a Martyr the authority is far greater.
[3] Michele Monaco in the Sanctuarium of Capua recites the former words, but this is altogether uncertain; and on pages 64 and 65 probably concludes from them that Priscus was a Jew by race, since Christ the Lord chose no disciples but Jews. He judges it also more probable that Christ took the last supper with the Apostles in St. Priscus' house, because that honor cannot probably be attributed either to John the apostle, or to John Mark, or to Simon the Leper, to whom it is ascribed by others. But it is too uncertain who that householder was with whom the Lord deigned to take His last supper, for us to need to dwell on these things. Certainly the authority of Peter de Natalibus alone does not suffice to make it more probable that the said honor can be attributed to St. Priscus than that it has been ascribed to others.
[4] As regards discipleship of Christ, the Capuans everywhere, and other writers, attribute it to St. Priscus with the Martyrologies, but that he was a disciple of Christ and bishop of Capua is everywhere believed: and add that he was the first bishop of the church of Capua, appointed by St. Peter. Monaco on page 67 adduces various writers who affirm both with one mouth, namely the most eminent Cardinals Santorio, Baronius, and Bellarmine, as also Maurolycus and Galesinius in their Martyrologies. Among these Bellarmine, who composed a manuscript Catalogue of the bishops of Capua while he presided over that church, has thus: Priscus bishop and martyr, one of the ancient disciples of Christ, was sent to Capua by the holy apostle Peter. With him most others agree. It can indeed be objected against St. Priscus' episcopate that in the ancient Martyrologies he is nowhere called bishop. But it is established that that title was not rarely omitted in the ancient Martyrologies, and therefore from the omission of that title no effective argument is drawn against the Saint's episcopal dignity, which can be sufficiently proved from elsewhere. Hear the praised Monaco discoursing on this matter, page 66: Although neither in the Martyrology nor in Peter's Catalogue is Priscus named bishop, yet when we read that he preached the Gospel, we are compelled to affirm that he was a bishop: for if St. Priscus had not been a bishop, he could not have established a church nor ordained ministers of the Sacraments … And indeed on the Aquarian way he was under this name perpetually honored: and among the Acts of blessed Matrona painted on the walls there was represented the finding of St. Priscus, and there was an image of an old man clad in episcopal vestments, which in the presence of blessed Matrona was being drawn out of a well dug open. Those Acts of St. Matrona we shall adduce more fully below, since she is said to have found the body of St. Priscus and to have built a church for him. Finally, since he is said to be a disciple of Christ and to have been crowned with martyrdom at Capua, we can scarcely doubt that he went thither to preach the Gospel and was adorned with the episcopal dignity, that he might establish a church, as Monaco observed.
[5] Priscus, not Rufus, must be called the first bishop of the church of Capua; Orlendi in the Sacred and Profane World, part 2, book 4, chapter 5, num. 8, acknowledges St. Priscus' episcopate of Capua, but doubts whether he or St. Rufus, of whom I treated at the XXVII of August, was the first bishop of that church: The first foundations of that church, he says, are related to have been laid at the very coming of the divine Peter to the city of Rome by as many as have written of Capuan affairs. But there are two to whom the first institution of the church of Capua seems able to be attributed, namely Priscus and Rufus. That both were of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, and that both were ordained bishops of Capua by the divine Peter, Baronius asserts at the years 44 and 46. That Rufus indeed was one of the companions of the divine Peter when he went from Antioch to Rome, and that the same was given to the Capuans as bishop by the Prince of the Apostles, he affirms in the former place: "Rufus," he says, "was made bishop of Capua": and he confirms it from Metaphrastes at the day XXIX of June. That this same Rufus was one of the seventy-two disciples he had already before said at the year 33, num. 41, from St. Epiphanius in the Panarion, book 1. But below, at the year 46, he wrote that Priscus likewise was set over Capua as bishop by the divine Peter: "Capua had Priscus appointed bishop by Peter." But which of these gave the beginning to the church of Capua first is still unknown to me. So he, doubtingly. But from what I discussed about St. Rufus at the XXVII of August from page 9, the studious reader will sufficiently gather that Rufus presided over the church of Capua later, since he was a disciple of St. Apollinaris, and therefore that Rufus of Capua is distinguished from the Rufus who is numbered by some among the disciples of Christ. Nor did Baronius anywhere say that Rufus was the first of the bishops of Capua, or that he was ordained and sent to Capua by St. Peter, as Orlendi will have it.
[6] [since this man is other than that Rufus who is numbered among the disciples of Christ.] More rightly did Antonio Caracciolo discuss this matter in his Work On the Sacred Monuments of the Church of Naples, chapter 3, section 10, where he has thus: I come to Priscus, bishop of our Campania: whom all who write of him relate to have been one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, namely Bede (augmented), Usuard, Ado, .. Peter of Equilium … But that he was brought from the East by Peter and given to Capua as bishop, and not, as one of the moderns writes, Rufus, is plain both from the already-mentioned writers of the Martyrologies, who, since they assert that Priscus was an ancient disciple of Christ, at all events signify that he was set over the city of Capua not after Rufus but much before, that is, in that first preaching of the Christian faith in Campania; and also because that Rufus who was bishop of Capua belongs not to these but to much later times. For long after blessed Peter's coming to the city of Rome, nay even after his death, Rufus, from a patrician of Ravenna made a servant of Christ by blessed Apollinaris, was sent to Capua about the year of the Lord eightieth. Thus far Caracciolo, in whose opinion, with Ughelli and all the Capuan writers everywhere, I gladly acquiesce; since nothing more probable occurs, and the ancient images given by Monaco on page 132 hint at this very thing, among which St. Priscus is set before St. Rufus.
§ II. The Saint's deeds and his martyrdom, as they are reported from the Capuan Breviary.
[ ] [The deeds of St. Priscus in the Capuan Breviary confused with the deeds of another Priscus:] Of the deeds of St. Priscus some things are recorded in the ancient Capuan Breviary, but not without confusion. There are indeed at 1 September nine lessons, of which the first three treat of St. Priscus the African bishop, whose deeds we shall examine below; the three following of the twelve Brother Martyrs, whose Acts we shall likewise illustrate on this day; and finally the last three treat of Priscus the bishop and martyr, whom the Breviary does not clearly distinguish from him of whom it had treated before, but rather seems to confuse the two. The often-praised Monaco confesses that confusion on page 68, where he observes the following: The Roman Martyrology on the first day of September treats of two Prisci: but the narrative of the Capuan Breviary has fashioned one out of two. But, as Cardinal Bellarmine noted, in the first three lessons the Breviary narrates the deeds of the St. Priscus who came from Africa; but in the last three it touches on the passion of the earlier St. Priscus, who was sent to the Capuans entangled in the errors of the pagans: and therefore we have copied out the seventh, eighth, and ninth lessons as pertaining to this Priscus. Certainly the things which are reported about St. Priscus' martyrdom cannot fit Priscus the African, who seems to have lived in the fifth century, and therefore they must be understood of the Priscus whom the ancient martyrologists call a disciple of Christ. This confusion will perhaps seem strange to someone, and it is more to be wondered at that the Capuans themselves at that time did not recognize the earlier Priscus; but this must be attributed to the ignorance of those times, with which the collector of those lessons also labored, who attributed to one Priscus what he found about two.
[8] Receive meanwhile the things which seem to have been said about our Priscus: there are given those things which seem to pertain to Priscus I: And blessed Priscus, bishop of Capua, was granted by the Lord to free the people, who there still offered vain sacrifices to Diana, and to bring them to the true knowledge of God and to belief. He dwelt before the city, not far from the gate which is called Alban, on the road which leads to Beneventum, with two of his ministers. To whom God conferred so great a grace that daily an infinite multitude of the people ran together to his holy preaching. But when God through him showed many wonders there — healing the sick, raising the dead, giving light to the blind, driving demons from possessed bodies — and had converted a multitude of the people to the faith of the Lord, there was stirred up no small sedition of the pagans by their priests, because they had lost great gain, no longer receiving the accustomed answers of the demons. They went therefore to the proconsul, crying out that through Priscus the people had been overthrown, the temple of Diana being forsaken, and that he was preaching to them I know not what superstitious sect. Then the proconsul ordered holy Priscus to be seized and to be compelled by the executioners to sacrifice. But when the executioners, wishing to kill him, tried with daggers and clubs of wood to compel him to sacrifice, and their arms had failed against the Saint of God, blessed Priscus, while they stood by, with hands stretched out to heaven prayed, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, I give Thee thanks, because Thou hast not cheated me of the number of Thy Saints, but hast deigned to bring me to my desire: blessed be Thy name for ever, and receive now my spirit, O Lord my God. And when he had finished his prayer he at once gave up the spirit, and rejoicing and glad went to the Lord. But his enemies, stupefied and confounded, returned, not prevailing against the Saint of God: and many of them believed in Christ the Lord.
[9] [the same things are read in an ancient manuscript, equally confused. But from these and from the Martyrologies] These things are also read in a double Cassinese transcript sent to our predecessors, of which the one is marked from volume 147 of the manuscripts of the Cassinese library in Lombard letters; the other from a most ancient manuscript codex in Lombard characters in the Cassinese library. The same confusion reigns in those manuscripts: for all is attributed to St. Priscus the African, as is done in the Breviary. Nevertheless it is certain that what is said about the complaints of the pagans and of their priests, saying that there had been forsaken
the temple of Diana, and that a superstitious sect was being preached: for at that time, although not a few remnants of heathenism survived, the Christian faith had struck deeper roots than that there should be room for complaints of that kind to be publicly brought forward. Still less do the things reported about the proconsul and about the torments inflicted on the Saint agree with that time. Hence, since all things agree well enough with the times of Nero, in whose reign the martyrdom of St. Priscus, the first bishop of the Capuans, is believed to have happened, the Capuans and other writers probably judge that all these things were first reported of this Saint, and afterwards by an error attributed to the other. For this cause they composed proper Lessons of St. Priscus the first, revised and approved by the sacred Congregation of Rites in the year 1669 and printed with others at Naples in the same year, out of the three lessons recited, with only a few things added from the ancient Martyrologies and from Peter of Equilium's Catalogue of Saints.
[10] new lessons were composed, These lessons therefore, as a probable summary of the Life of St. Priscus, I here set before the readers' eyes: Priscus, one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, is believed to have been he in whose house Christ the Lord made His last supper with His disciples and instituted the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. And when after the Ascension of the same our Saviour he went to Rome together with blessed Peter the prince of the apostles, he was ordained by him the first bishop of Capua, that he might preach the Gospel in this city, which office he both eagerly undertook and happily fulfilled. For, being full of the Spirit of God and kindled with apostolic zeal, he applied himself to the salvation of souls with such care and solicitude that he recalled a lost nation, greatly given to the worship of Diana, for the greatest part from the servitude of idols to the Christian religion.
[11] which are recited, Intent therefore on the preaching of the divine word, he fixed his dwelling not far from the Alban gate on the road by which one goes to Beneventum, together with two ministers, and there held frequent assemblies before the people, endowed with such grace and efficacy of speaking that an infinite multitude of the nations flowed together to hear him, not without the most abundant increase of the Christian name and religion. Nor did he heal souls only, but bodies also; for he cured the sick, restored sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf; he drove out demons, raised the dead, God confirming the discourse and the sanctity of His Servant with signs that followed.
[12] And when by all these he had withdrawn worship from the idols as a probable summary of his life; and had won the greatest reverence for the Christian religion, the priests of the gods, driven into a rage, accused the holy Man before the proconsul, by whom he was seized and bound and tortured with various kinds of torments, that he might compel him to sacrifice to idols. But the most valiant Athlete of Christ, desiring to confirm with his own blood the faith which he had preached in words and manners, bore the threats and punishments of the impious with such constancy that he was a wonder to all and a salvation to many: for, the worship of idols being forsaken, they gave their name to the Christian faith. But Priscus, with eyes and hands lifted to heaven, said: I give Thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, because Thou hast deigned to join me to the number of Thy Saints, nor hast cheated me of my desire. Blessed be Thy Name for ever, and receive my spirit. Which said, he was stabbed through with daggers on the Aquarian way, and adorned with an illustrious martyrdom the episcopal see which he first held at Capua. Let the reader here observe that what is said about the Alban way and about the idolatrous worship of Diana agrees excellently with ancient Capua, which was not in that place where present-day Capua now is, as Camillo Pellegrino explains in his Italian Work, afterwards rendered into Latin, On Campania Felix, dissertation 2, chapter 29, and other writers who have described the situation of old Capua.
[13] Certainly ancient writers mentioned the Alban way — about the Alban way, the temple of Tifatine Diana, Cicero, Valerius Maximus, and others recorded among the modern historians of old Capua. Several also recorded the mountain Tifata overhanging ancient Capua, on which was the famous temple of Diana. The praised Pellegrino in chapter 28 writes thus of both: Tifata is one of those mountains which are best known in our Campania; and although by nature's benefit it is adorned with no signal endowment which might add to it any greater value, it was nevertheless in ancient times famous enough; nor will its name easily pass into oblivion while the deeds of that Punic leader [] who often pitched camp on it live in the History of the same Livy. From its name that noble temple took the surname Tifatine which of old was built at its foot toward the winter West, a few thousand paces from old Capua, and dedicated to Diana. This temple is known not only from certain of our ancient inscriptions, but is also famous through the notices which occur about it in our Velleius, book II, in Pausanias, book V, in Athenæus, book XI, once and again, and in the Peutinger Itinerary, to say nothing of Leo of Ostia, book 1, chapter LVI. Thus far Pellegrino, as he was lately rendered into Latin by Sigebert Havercamp and published at Leiden in the Thesaurus of the Antiquities and Histories of Italy*, volume 9, part 2, column 264.
[14] The most illustrious Cesare Costa, archbishop of Capua, and about the Aquarian way certain things are observed: and others in their description of ancient Capua distinguish the Aquarian way, on which the Saint was crowned with martyrdom, from the Alban way, and will have it called Aquarian from an aqueduct placed in its neighborhood. Hear Monaco in the Sanctuarium, page 72: What then is the Aquarian way? he says. Not far from the southern side of the church of St. Priscus (where is now the village called San Prisco) there appear not a few traces of an aqueduct, to which clings a road descending through the middle of the village. We may suppose that in that most ancient time too there was the same road there, which, clinging to the aqueduct, descended from the aqueduct itself as far as the city wall. Or (what seems conformable to the description of my lord archbishop Costa) that hollow road which not far from the northern side of that church descends for a length of nearly a thousand paces and reaches that crossroads which is near the lower corner of the field of St. Martin: (it is called there ALLA GROTTELLA, more anciently it was called a Bagnuolo: there, or near there, was the gate of Jupiter.) That road may be reckoned the Aquarian, because, running straight from the city gate to the East, it joined itself to the aqueduct not far behind the church of St. Priscus.
[15] some popular traditions about St. Priscus. Giovanni Pietro Pasquale in his History of the First Church of Capua, pages 23 and 24, writes this: It is received from our forefathers that the most blessed Prince of the Apostles, when he was going from Capua to Rome by the road which leads to the river (Volturnus), and Priscus was accompanying him nearly a thousand paces from the city and he forbade him to set his foot farther, halted on the very plain of the fields (lying below) mount Tifata. And when, having kissed one another, they were parted with tears on both sides, and to Peter looking up there met under that mountain the most famous shrine of Tifatine Diana, he pointed it out and admonished him that he should inveigh against it more vehemently; and at that token of his outstretched hand the image of the false deity fell down. And in this place the pious mind of the faithful, a sacred building being raised, set an inscription of this kind. But afterwards, having fallen down through age and been restored again in the year of the Lord 1420, yet afterwards utterly done away, it is said to retain nothing but the name of St. Peter, commonly Apostea. Thus he, as he notes, from the tradition of Nicolaus Vitelleus, from the Campanian keeper of treasures of bishop Cabenus; and from a parchment autograph kept in the treasury of Capua, issued in the year of the Lord 1420, in which of this building it is thus had: "And it is for the passage and public use of all travelers wishing to pass that way." But I fear that the deed, or that overthrow of Diana's image, rests on popular tradition alone; as does also that which Monaco reports on page 70 in these words: That St. Priscus among other things taught the worship and observance of the Lord's day instituted by the Apostles I persuade myself from what I have more than once heard in his village. As they there relate, the beasts which on the first day of the week passed laden before St. Priscus' house very frequently fell. About which matter, when the drivers partly wondered and partly grieved, the Saint took occasion thence of disclosing the mysteries of the faith, and admonished them not to load their beasts on that day but to abstain from their accustomed works: therefore simple and unlettered parishioners sometimes say that the Lord's day was instituted by St. Priscus.
AnnotataHannibal's*
§ III. The various findings and translations of the body.
[ ] The Saint's ancient sepulchre, where is the village called San Prisco: It does not seem to be doubted that the body of St. Priscus was buried outside ancient Capua near the place of his martyrdom. The already praised Camillo Pellegrino in dissertation 2, chapter 26, on occasion of that part of the Appian way which led from Capua to Beneventum, mentions our Saint's sepulchre in these words: Nor will it perhaps profit more to adduce a passage from the Acts of St. Priscus, our first bishop and one of the Saviour's disciples, who dwelt before the city on the road which leads to Beneventum with two of his ministers. And near this place he was afterwards put to death by the pagans' executioners and buried in that same place; and since a most ancient cemetery was established there, a village grew up from it, which even today has its name from him, and is on that side of old Capua by which, the ruins of Suessula being left on the right somewhat off the road, the journey is first to Arpaia and thence to Beneventum. The village of San Prisco, where the Saint's ancient sepulchre is, is marked in certain geographical maps between Macerata, to which it is near, and present-day Capua, from which it is distant about 2500 paces, as Pietro Pasquale of our Society once wrote to our Papebroch.
[17] Wonderful are the things which Michele Monaco narrated about the first finding of St. Priscus' body in the Sanctuarium, page 143 and following, [the first finding of the sacred body narrated in a manner more wonderful than true,] in the Life of St. Matrona, which he composed from the paintings of the church of St. Priscus. Bolland inserted the same history in volume 2 of March from page 398, because St. Matrona, who is said to have found the body of St. Priscus by a divine revelation, is honored at Capua on the XV of March, and is believed to be buried in the very church of St. Priscus, where too she became famous for miracles. Yet I confess that this whole history of the finding, as it has been reported by Monaco, appears more wonderful than credible, so that I do not doubt that it is stained with many errors. Pietro Pasquale in the praised Work rejected this finding of the body altogether, and on page 42 and in other places says that St. Matrona lived with St. Priscus, and affirms that he was received by her in hospitality and after death buried. But that writer fell into this led by no other reason than that he believed it more likely than are those things
which were said about the finding of the body: and so that new opinion, since it rests on no foundation, must be rejected with the same ease with which it was asserted. Baronius in his notes on the Martyrology at the XV of March suspects that Matrona of Capua was brought thither from Africa after her death, adding this censure of the Acts of St. Matrona of Capua: To such a conjecture indeed in an obscure matter we more gladly suffer ourselves to be led than give credence to certain Acts which stand up in no part, in which Matrona is said to have gone from Lusitania to Capua. The Capuans themselves too seem to have held the history of the finding of St. Priscus' body through St. Matrona suspect of fiction, since in the new lessons of St. Priscus they touched on it not at all. Nevertheless Monaco on page 144 tried so to defend the history that he would not have the whole called fictitious, and Bolland did not altogether disapprove his reasons; but partly corrected them, partly added others, and more fully refuted Baronius' conjecture.
[18] Further, the history of the finding of St. Priscus which Monaco had in painting, which is narrated otherwise from an ancient manuscript, and which either the painting disfigured or those disfigured who interpreted the painted history in writing, I have found in the Cassinese manuscript already mentioned, where after St. Priscus' martyrdom it is read joined on in this manner: But after some time, when the churches of Christ lay open, a certain Matron in the province of Spain had for some years suffered a flux of the belly, and could not be cured by physicians. To her therefore in a revelation there came an angelic vision, saying: If thou wilt be freed from thy infirmity, go into the city of Campania, Capua, before the gate of that city on the road which leads to Beneventum. There in a tomb thou shalt find the body of Priscus, a man of God, who there suffered for Christ. When thou shalt have soon buried him with honor where it shall have been shown thee, thou shalt at once receive the health of thy body. And she, coming to Capua and diligently seeking where it had been told her, found the body of blessed Priscus: which, being placed in a wagon, she went on, awaiting the showing of the place, as had been revealed her. But when they had come to the place where he now rests, the animals which carried so great a vessel by divine command stood still, where she buried it embalmed with spices, building him a chamber. And as soon as she had faithfully fulfilled what was commanded her, she received health from her infirmity and deserved the effect of all her petitions, blessed Priscus interceding, whose birthday is celebrated on the day of the Kalends of September. To the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Thus far the double Cassinese transcript, whether those things were taken from different codices or from the same by different men, which is uncertain to me.
[19] and thus it departs less from likelihood: Now indeed this report is liable to much smaller difficulties and is far more credible than that which Monaco composed from the paintings. For there Matrona is said to be a girl of twelve and the daughter of the king of Portugal: there too two untamed bullocks are brought in, on whose heads Matrona was to place a cord: and at last she is said to have built and endowed a church. On the contrary, in the manuscript all things are less wonderful and more credible. Wherefore let me be allowed not to take away all credit from this written narrative, but rather to say doubtingly with Bolland, page 400: Is it then certain and undoubted that these things so happened? We do not assert it. But if anyone should assert it, by what testimony of an ancient writer could he be refuted? Now therefore, since there favor this narrative the remains of the sepulchre or chapel built by Matrona, the very many miracles wrought there, the yearly feast of Matrona celebrated in that building on the Ides of March from all memory past, the frequent concourse of peoples thither — is it not better to retain the opinion, or to suffer those to retain it whom it pleases, which has long since clung deeply in the minds of all, than to invent another Matrona whose relics were brought hither, of whom no writing or other monument exists anywhere? Finally, whatever be the case with the truth of this wonderful finding, that the body of St. Priscus was in great honor near ancient Capua is sufficiently gathered from the church built for him and from the village which even today bears the Saint's name.
[20] [the body then translated to the metropolitan church of Capua, particles being left in the old church,] It is also established that the body of St. Priscus was afterwards translated to Capua and there found in our century, as we shall narrate. But I do not find with sufficient certainty in what year that translation was made. Monaco indeed on page 539 suspects that the translation happened in the year one thousand, but he alleges a doubtful reason. Receive his words: In the year 1498 Luca Pisano, rector of the parish of San Prisco, sounding the ancient altar placed under the semicircle of the tribune, found a small glass vessel with dust and a tooth and fragments of bones. The vessel had a leaden lid, and on the lid on the front part round about were engraved the letters relics of Saint Priscus martyr, and then, for the narrowness of the space, an a at the side and above the a an m: but when the goldsmith wished to fit the lid to a new silver vessel, by carelessness with a stroke of the hammer he blunted that m placed above the a. We have interpreted the A and M as IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND, and have conjectured that in that year the body of St. Priscus was translated to Capua; but that the fragments and dust of the translated bones were left in that altar, lest the ancient basilica of St. Priscus should remain wholly deprived of its own pledges. As we easily believe from what has been said that particles of the sacred body remained in the ancient church, so we judge the conjecture about the year one thousand for the translation but little firm.
[21] In the year 1712 Nicola Caracciolo, archbishop of Capua and afterwards Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, happily found in the cathedral church the body of St. Priscus together with the bodies of five other Saints. and found there in the year 1712 with the other bodies of Saints, Nicola Coleti recorded that finding in Ughelli's Italia sacra reprinted, volume 8, column 366, in these words: The bodies, before unknown because long hidden, of SS. Priscus the first bishop of Capua, Quartus and Quintus clerics, Rufus the deacon, and Carponius, martyrs (nay, and of Decorosus the bishop), lately found, enclosed in silver caskets, he laid up in the treasury of the church, whose ancient structure he now ennobles with a newer and more elegant one. This report of the finding is not free from confusion and error; for besides the omission of St. Decorosus the bishop, the bodies of SS. Quartus and Quintus the clerics had already been found separately in the year 1711; and the bodies of SS. Quartus and Quintus the bishops were found together with the bodies of SS. Priscus, Rufus, Carponius, and Decorosus, as is manifest from the instruments which we shall presently recite. And those instruments were drawn up each in its own time, and afterwards all printed together and sent to us by the illustrious man Signor Domenico de Giorgio, frequently praised in this Work.
[22] Of the seven instruments the first and second regard SS. Quartus and Quintus, clerics and martyrs, as the instruments sent to us teach. of whom we treated at the day X of May. Their bodies were found on the IX day of May of the year 1711, as is there related. But since I do not treat of these in this place, those two instruments being omitted, I only briefly observe that the opinion of Michele Monaco, who in the Sanctuarium, page 35, tries to show that there were at Capua bishops Quartus and Quintus, and that they were other than the two aforesaid clerics, is made much more probable by the finding of these bodies: for in one place were found the bodies of SS. Quartus and Quintus the clerics, in another those of SS. Quartus and Quintus the bishops, and the due inscriptions above the chests of each. Further, the third of the said instruments treats of St. Priscus and of the other Saints found with him. The fourth is wholly about the recognition and deposition of the bones of St. Priscus. These two therefore I shall presently recite entire. The fifth pertains to SS. Quartus and Quintus the bishops, and belongs not to this place but to another. The sixth I have already given entire in volume VI of August, page 17, in SS. Rufus and Carponius, of whose elevation and deposition, and of St. Decorosus', it alone treats. The seventh finally treats of the finding of the relics of Saints whose names are unknown.
§ IV. Two Capuan instruments, in which are related the finding of St. Priscus and of certain other Saints, and the recognition and deposition of the bones of St. Priscus.
[ ] [While the archbishop of Capua seeks in the church of Capua the body of St. Rufus the bishop,] In the name of God. Amen. By this present public instrument let it be evidently plain to all everywhere, and be it known, how, since the most illustrious and most reverend father and lord in Christ, D. Nicola Caracciolo, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See archbishop of Capua, had learned from the ancient monuments of his metropolitan church that the sacred body of St. Rufus, bishop of Capua, rested in the same church, and properly in the bosom of a certain altar near the door of the sacristy, he thought of digging it up and finding it; wherefore today the XXVII of June 1712, in the morning, about the fifteenth hour, accompanied by the most reverend canons, namely Baldassare Stellato the dean, Roberto de Azzia the treasurer, Carlo della Ratta, Giuseppe de Rosa, Andrea Salerno, Mattia Joccia, Domenico Forgillo the penitentiary, Filippo Rossi, clad in canonical insignia together with me, etc., he approached to dig up the sacred deposit of his holy predecessor, and, kneeling before the aforesaid altar, the litanies of the blessed Virgin Mary and other prayers being first recited, he caused the stone table to be removed by the masons from the top of the aforesaid altar; which being removed, there appeared another stone table of lesser length and breadth, firmly clinging to the fabric of the altar itself; which being lifted, there was found a certain hollow made of little marble slabs arranged in the manner of a chest, and divided into six little chambers, and in each of them was laid a certain little wooden coffer.
[24] he finds six chests with inscriptions set over each: And further it was observed that on the lower surface of the aforesaid stone table, which like a lid protected the said hollow, there were engraved [*] in a semi-Gothic character six inscriptions, and that each of them corresponded above the several aforesaid little chambers in which stood laid the above-said little wooden coffers; and above their lids there appeared also engraved other inscriptions, which were read in a loud and intelligible voice by the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop and by me, one after another, and in the same order in which they were laid in the above-said little chambers and engraved in the above-said stone, here registered:
✠ Here rests the Body of Saint Rufus the Martyr.
✠ Here lies the Body of St. Carponius, M.
✠ Here lies the Body of St. Priscus the Martyr.
✠ Here lies the Body of St. Decorosus the Bishop. a.
✠ Here lies the Body of St. Quintus the Bishop.
The other Inscriptions, which are found inelegantly engraved above the lid of each of the six little coffers, are the following:
✠ Rel. of St. Rufus the Martyr.
✠ Rel. of St. Carponius the Martyr.
✠ Rel. of St. Priscus the Martyr.
✠ Rel. of St. Decorosus the Bishop.
✠ Rel. of St. Quartus the Bishop.
✠ Rel. of St. Quintus the Bishop.
[25] Which six little coffers the most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop drew out with his own hands from the aforesaid place, the shape of the chests, and set upon a walnut table covered with an all-silk cloth of red color, meanwhile pouring out tears for joy, and intoned the hymn Te Deum; which being sung by the said canons, and matters so standing, the same most illustrious lord ordered the aforesaid little coffers to be examined by me and by the same canons to the end, etc. Which, being well examined, were found to be of poplar wood, and each of them at the end of the lid furnished with a seal impressed upon wax, whose color for its antiquity could not be discerned: and its breadth is of the size of a Roman half-piastra [], and it has impressed a half figure of a certain levite clad in a dalmatic, and round about the inscription Saint Stephen* b.
[26] But the little box in which is the inscription Rel. of St. Priscus M. and its size described: had its lid raised and the seal broken into two parts; and there were laid in the same little coffer some human bones, and the most illustrious lord fitted the lid over its mouth. Besides, by order of the same most illustrious and most reverend lord the aforesaid wooden coffers were measured by the excellent man Sebastiano Cipriano the Roman, architect of the reverend Apostolic chamber, and five of them were found to be of the length of one palm, nine inches, and of the breadth of seven inches; the other, that of St. Priscus, of the length of one palm and four inches and a half, of the breadth of six inches; but in height they were unequal. For the first in order, as described above, was of eleven inches and a half, the second of ten inches and a half, the third of nine inches and a half, the fourth of ten inches, the fifth of nine inches, the sixth of seven inches. There was also measured the hollow arranged in the form of a chest, in which stood the aforesaid six little coffers, and which is described above, and it was found to be of the length of four palms and six inches, of the breadth of one palm and ten inches, of the height of one palm and two inches.
[27] All which being finished, the aforesaid little coffers, closed and sealed as they were, the chests are deposited to be guarded in a chapel, were laid by the most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop in a certain wooden chest covered with red leather, commonly called a baullo, which was locked with its key in the two locks with which it was furnished, and then was sealed with eight small seals of the most illustrious lord archbishop impressed in Spanish wax upon four linen ribbons of white color. The said chest therefore, thus closed, secured, and sealed, was carried into the chapel of the treasury, and entrusted by way of provision to the aforesaid lord canon de Azzia, the treasurer, to be guarded: for the most illustrious lord archbishop, lest so precious a treasure should remain hidden in the future, decreed to place the sacred bones and ashes which are found in the said coffers more honorably and more nobly in caskets or silver statues, as should seem best, and to expose them to the public veneration of the faithful. All and each of which things were done in the presence of the aforesaid most reverend canons and of the most illustrious magistrate of the city of Capua, namely D. Cesare de Thomasiis, D. Nicola de Capua, Giovanni Battista Sarzuto, and Domenico Gianfrosca. Concerning which, etc., and in faith I have drawn up, subscribed, published this present instrument, written by another's hand yet faithful to me, and have signed it with my accustomed sign, being required. I, Alessio de Abusso, priest of Capua, public notary by Apostolic authority, and chancellor of the archiepiscopal curia of Capua, etc. c
[28] that they may be placed more honorably. In the name of God, amen. By this present public instrument let it be evidently plain to all everywhere, and be it known, how, since on the twenty-seventh day of the month of June of the year one thousand seven hundred and twelve there were found in the holy metropolitan church of Capua, and in the bosom of a certain altar, the sacred bones of six Saints, namely of St. Priscus M., the first bishop of Capua, of SS. Rufus and Carponius MM., of SS. Decorosus, Quartus, and Quintus, prelates of Capua, which the most illustrious and most reverend father and lord in Christ, D. Nicola Caracciolo, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See archbishop of Capua, laid and enclosed in their distinct wooden coffers, as they were found, in a certain wooden chest covered with leather and secured with key and seals, and ordered to be kept by way of provision in the chapel of the same holy metropolitan church called the Treasury, to the end of placing them more decently and nobly and exposing them to the public veneration of the faithful, as (is clear) from the instrument of the finding on the aforesaid day and year, drawn up at request by my hand.
[29] The bones of St. Priscus are carried to the archbishop's chapel, And since by the pure piety of the most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop aforesaid there is found already constructed a certain magnificent silver statue representing the likeness of the aforesaid St. Priscus, bishop and M.; and the same most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop, willing for the aforesaid end to place the sacred bones of the same St. Priscus, found as above, in the base of the aforesaid statue; today the thirtieth of the month of August 1712, about the thirteenth hour, the most illustrious and most reverend lord Giuseppe Schinosi, bishop of Caserta, being called to honor the sacred function, by the Canons clad in their insignia and with the appointed rite, the aforesaid chest in which the said sacred bones were enclosed was carried into the chapel of this archiepiscopal palace, and was set upon a table covered with a cloth of gold and all-silk and surrounded with silver candlesticks.
[30] where, drawn out of the chest, Things so standing, the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop showed the chest to me the notary and to the most reverend lords Baldassare Stellato the dean, Roberto de Azzia the treasurer, Giuseppe de Rosa, Domenico Forgillo, Mattia Joccia, Carlo della Ratta, Filippo Rossi, canons of the holy metropolitan church, witnesses who had been present at the sealing of that chest on the said XXVII day of June, that they might recognize the seals impressed in Spanish wax and the linen ribbons with which it had been bound in four parts, whether they were in good state: and these being examined by the instrumentary witnesses themselves, they said that the seals impressed on the XXVII day of June on the same chest had not been removed, and that the linen ribbons with which it had been bound in four parts had not been violated, but that all were in good state and remained in that condition in which they had been placed. Whence it was ordered that those seals be removed and the linen ribbons be cut, as they were removed and respectively cut by the said canon D. Filippo Rossi: and then the most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop, having taken the key of the aforesaid chest which he had kept with himself, opened it; and, the hymn Christo profusum sanguinem being sung by the aforesaid canons, and the silver statue being blessed by the most illustrious and most reverend bishop of Caserta, clad in mitre and cope, the most illustrious lord archbishop drew out of the aforesaid chest another little wooden coffer in which were found laid up the bones of St. Priscus, bishop and M.: and delivered it into the hands of the most illustrious lord bishop of Caserta; which lord bishop drew the aforesaid bones out of the little coffer and set them upon certain broad papers folded at the ends and raised as a precaution, lest the bones should slip away.
[31] And then there were called witnesses skilled in anatomy, each is recognized and enumerated, namely Francesco Borrelli, Andrea Sapio, doctors of the art of medicine, and Giovanni Tuppone, doctor of surgery, to recognize and describe the same sacred bones; to whom by the aforesaid bishop of Caserta an oath was administered of bearing themselves faithfully and of speaking the truth, as they swore with the Scriptures touched: and it was ordered that the aforesaid sacred bones be recognized and minutely described; and then the above-said experts separated the bones, and afterwards exactly specified their parts by the proper names of each bone and of each part of them, and the following catalogue was made:
A bone of the shin broken into two parts, of about one palm and a half.
A bone of the arm, commonly called the ULNA, of one palm and one inch.
A bone of the spinal marrow, one vertebra, and probably the fifth of the neck.
A bone of the ankle of about three inches in breadth, about two in length.
Another bone of the shin, called the ACETABULUM, as appears from its shape.
Another bone of the hip, likewise of three inches in breadth and two in length.
Another bone of the hip of three inches.
Four middle bones of the foot, entire.
Two little pieces of small ribs.
Three other little pieces of bones of the hip.
A small halved bone of a finger of the hand.
Fifteen fragments of bones which for their smallness could not be specified.
[32] Which bones, thus recognized, specified, described, and numbered by the aforesaid most illustrious lord bishop of Caserta, and, being recognized, are enclosed in the new silver statue. with the help also of the canon Filippo Rossi and of Father Nicola Rosano of the Society of Jesus, were fitted [*] upon a certain cushion made of silken cloth and fastened with silken threads, and were laid in the hollow of the aforesaid statue; but the fifteen fragments of bones which for their smallness could not be specified, together with their ashes found in the bottom of the wooden coffer, were laid up in a certain glass phial, which likewise was placed in the same hollow of the base. And the base, besides the openings furnished with crystals on the front part and at the sides, has also on the back part a little door with its own key and iron lock, which by the same canon Filippo Rossi, by order of the most illustrious lord archbishop, was closed, and in four parts was secured and sealed by the impression of the small seal of the same lord archbishop in Spanish wax upon silken ribbons of red color.
[33] But since some asserted that the aforesaid sacred bones were rather of St. Priscus the confessor, bishop of Capua, Since some said that the whole body of St. Priscus M. was kept in another chest, commonly called here the Younger, being moved by this, that in the church of Capua there had always flourished, and still flourishes, a report and firm tradition that the sacred body of St. Priscus M., the first bishop of Capua, is kept entire in a certain silver chest and is guarded in the treasury of relics of the metropolitan temple, which every year on the recurring first day of September, the birthday of the aforesaid holy Martyr being celebrated, was wont to be exposed on the high altar of the same temple: and although it clearly appeared from the inscription, both on the lid of the above-said wooden coffer and engraved on the stone, as both were registered in the instrument of the finding, on the XXVII day of June of the current year drawn up at request by my hand — which inscriptions are to be given full credit, since we are among most ancient things — that the aforesaid sacred bones are those of holy Priscus, the first bishop of Capua and martyr; yet the most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop, to take away all ambiguity, decreed that the aforesaid silver chest be opened, and that the bones which in
they might perhaps be found, be raised up, and be counted, examined, and described by the aforesaid men skilled in anatomy, to the end of seeing whether among them there were other bones like them, and of the same part of the human body, to the bones found in the aforesaid wooden chest, described and counted above. And therefore the same most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop caused that same silver chest to be carried by the aforesaid canons, with the appointed rite, into the chapel of this archiepiscopal palace, where, when it had been set upon the table prepared as above, he bade me the notary describe it distinctly in this instrument, as I have described it.
[34] the archbishop orders it to be opened, Now the chest is of this kind: it is made of silver plates, of oblong shape, three palms in length and one palm in breadth; on its sides it has handles likewise of silver; on the front part is engraved the image of our Lord the Saviour seated, with his hand raised in the manner of one blessing, and also, on the right, the image of the same St. Priscus, clothed in a mitre and an episcopal chasuble of the ancient rite, and on the left the image of St. Stephen the Protomartyr; and on this part it is furnished with two locks after the fashion of a coffer, such as we commonly call a baullum. Nor could it be opened, because the keys were never seen or found, and within the memory of man no one recalls that it was ever opened. On the back part there is engraved the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, likewise seated, with the child Jesus in her arms; on her right the image of St. Agatha, virgin and martyr, on her left that of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr; which images have their names near the head, engraved in Gothic characters. And when the aforesaid inscription had been completed, the most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop intoned the hymn Veni sancte Spiritus*; and when this had been sung by the aforesaid canons, and the wishes of the same canons had been heard, as also of the most illustrious and most reverend lord bishop of Caserta, who had been summoned especially for this purpose, that the silver chest should be opened, he ordered it to be opened by Andrea de Blasio, a Neapolitan silversmith.
[35] and the bones drawn out, When it had been opened by the aforesaid man with fitting instruments, there appeared at first sight a certain iron grating laid over the bones; and when this had been lifted by the aforesaid most illustrious bishop of Caserta, there appeared another chest of cypress, which, being divided into two little compartments and lined within with silken cloth, contained the bones; all of which the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend bishop of Caserta drew out, and laid distinctly upon broad papers prepared for the purpose. And in the bottom of the right-hand compartment of the aforesaid cypress chest there was found a slip of paper, inscribed with these words in Gothic character: Relics found first; and some little copper coins of the form of that roundness which appears drawn in the margin of this instrument d. But in the bottom of the left-hand compartment was another slip, likewise inscribed in Gothic character with these words: Relics found second, together with some little coins of the same kind, which, being counted by the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend lord bishop of Caserta in the presence of the most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop, the canons, and the others present, made up the number of fifty; and on one side they bore stamped the image of the face of a crowned king, and in a circle these words: Karolus D. G. R.; but on the other side a cross composed of four lilies, and in a circle these words: Jerusalem, et Siciliæ e.
[36] Then, the oath having again been administered by the most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop to the aforesaid three men skilled in anatomy, [to be inspected and counted: from which inspection it is recognized that the two together are one whole body:] who were still present, that they would bear themselves well and faithfully, as with the Scriptures touched, etc., it was commanded that the aforesaid bones be examined and counted, as with the utmost diligence they were examined and counted by the experts, who under the same oath declared that the bones found in the said cypress chest, and examined and counted by them, did not entirely constitute a human body, although few were lacking for its entire constitution; and then, comparing the examination and counting made before of the bones recently found, now placed in the base of the statue as above, they declared that those bones were of the remaining bones which would entirely constitute a human body: by which declaration and report of the experts all ambiguity was removed concerning the aforesaid bones lately found, and all declared them to be the bones of St. Priscus the martyr, first bishop of Capua.
[37] These things being done, the same most illustrious and most reverend bishop of Caserta replaced all the bones in their former compartments of the same cypress chest, and it is laid up in the chapel of the Treasury. and fitted cotton among them, lest they should be able to shift and be broken against one another; and the fragments of the bones, and their ashes, found in the bottom of the chest, being placed in four glass phials, he set these in the corners of the chest, together with the following inscription: “On the thirtieth day of August 1712, Nicolas Caracciolo, archbishop of Capua, opened the chest, raised the body of St. Priscus, bishop and martyr, and examined it, with the intervention and presence of Giuseppe Schinosi, bishop of Caserta, and also of Baltassar Stellati the dean, Nicola de Baucio, Mattia Joccia, Giuseppe de Rosa, Filippo Rossi, and Alessio Mazzoccolo, canons; there was present also the abbot Giacomo Falconi of Cittaducale, doctor of both laws, apostolic prothonotary, and vicar general of Capua.” At last the silver chest, closed again by the aforesaid Andrea de Blasio with its silver bars and its former locks well fitted, remained guarded through the following night in the same chapel of this palace; but the wooden chest, in which stood the other five small wooden chests, as above, was again shut with its key, and secured with small seals in Spanish wax over four linen bands of white colour, and privately carried into the said chapel of the Treasury: concerning which things, etc. Done where above, etc., in the presence of the persons named and of the witnesses written above, well known to me, specially had and called for all and each of the aforesaid matters; and in witness of this I have subscribed, drawn up, and published this present instrument, written by another's hand yet one faithful to me, and have signed it with my accustomed sign, being required thereto: I, Alessio de Abusso, priest of Capua, public notary by apostolic authority, and chancellor of the archiepiscopal curia of Capua, etc.
ANNOTATA.
* engraved
* the coin is of silver.
perhaps adaptata*
perhaps inspectione*