Frontinianus

ON ST. FRONTINIANUS, MARTYR,

AT ALBA POMPEIA IN ITALY.

COLLECTION.

Frontinianus, M. at Alba Pompeia in Italy (S.)

BY J. S.

[The memory of St. Frontinianus in the modern calendars alone, but his cult ancient:] Saint Frontinianus the martyr Ferrarius announces today in both catalogues, and testifies that he is venerated at Alba Pompeia in the duchy of Montferrat on the river Tanaro. Castellan too mentions Frontinianus in his Universal Martyrology, and indeed on two days, namely at the VI of September, and again at the VI of October. In the ancient calendars I do not find this Saint, yet his cult is abundantly established. Indeed near Alba there stands a very ancient abbey, distinguished by the name of St. Frontinianus, in which his body was once kept, until in the year 1455 it was translated to the cathedral church of Alba, in which it is kept up to now, as I shall set forth more fully below. There is therefore no doubt about the ancient and legitimate cult of St. Frontinianus: but I greatly marvel that things so different have been written about the day of the festival, so that I find three different days assigned by those writers who were so near the place that each seems to have been able easily to learn the matter. Indeed Hyacinth Baresianus in the Italian Life of Margaret of Savoy, page 154, affirms that St. Frontinianus is venerated with a festal Office in the church of Alba on the VII day of August. Ughelli in volume 4 of the Italia Sacra, reprinted, column 283, refers the same festival to the VI of October. But Ferrarius in three places testifies that the Saint is venerated on the VI day of September, to which he was referred by us in the Prætermissi on the XIX day of February: for on that day the translation of the Saint is mentioned by Ferrarius in his general Catalogue.

[2] Concerning the Acts of this Saint, Ferrarius and Ughelli recite the same things from an ancient manuscript Office. a eulogy from an ancient manuscript Office; These, although they are not of great moment, or rather are not sufficiently certain, I transfer hither from Ughelli: Frontinianus, born at Carcassonne in Gaul of Christian parents, piously brought up from his earliest age, afterward, when he had flourished in letters and religion, was ordained a deacon. In which office, while he persevered in vigils, alms, prayers, and sacred readings, he gave a great specimen of his sanctity. For when he was about to set out for Rome to venerate the sepulchers of the holy Apostles with his companion Cassian, he wonderfully restored speech to a mute man and sight to a blind one. When they had come to the river Rhone,

a ship, which had been sunk in the deep sea, was by their prayers brought unharmed to the shore. On their return to their fatherland, at Alba Pompeia they freed a girl oppressed by a demon. By which miracle her parents with all their household, believing in Christ, were cleansed by the sacred laver. The impious prefect, taking this ill, sends his satellites, who seize St. Frontinianus as he was going out from Alba with his companion, in order to return to Carcassonne, and behead him as he bravely persisted in the confession of the Christian faith. Whose body, buried by the Christians, is religiously preserved in the cathedral church: and his birthday is venerated on this sixth day of October with an anniversary celebration.

[3] in which not all things seem certain: the date likewise uncertain: The rest is read in Ferrarius with almost no change; but the sixth of October is there omitted; nor do I think that that day was found in the Office, but that it was added by Ughelli: for it can scarcely be believed that Ferrarius, who testifies that the manuscript Office was sent to him, was so mistaken as to substitute September in three places for the month of October found in the Office, especially since after the first Catalogue was written he could have been warned by the people of Alba, if he had erred in the month. Further, this writer in his general Catalogue at the VI of September speaks thus about the Acts given: We have received in manuscript Acts in the fashion of Responsories, which that church (of Alba) once used at the feast of this Saint, rather to be rejected among the apocryphal. In the earlier Catalogue he expresses his conjecture about the time of the martyrdom thus: No mention of the time, nor of the end of Cassian (his companion), is made in the manuscript Office transmitted to us. Yet it is probable that Frontinianus suffered while the persecution against the Christians still endured. This conjecture is the more uncertain, the less the truth of the Acts is established: for Frontinianus could also have suffered in the time of the Lombards: nay, if we consider that an abbey was founded in the place where he is believed to have been slain, it will appear more probable that the Saint suffered in the VI, VII, or VIII century, than in the time of the heathen emperors, especially if to this consideration we add the silence of the ancient calendars. For we find few martyrs of the first centuries passed over in the calendars whose memory was afterward celebrated: but several are found in the middle ages whose obscure memory at length broke forth from the shadows.

[4] The ancient abbey of St. Frontinianus, Concerning the burial of St. Frontinianus, Ughelli after the eulogy given writes thus: Further, the things which are said about the burial are so to be taken, that his body remained in that very place in which it was laid by the Christians, namely in the church dedicated to his memory, to which afterward was added a noble abbey of the monks of St. Benedict, until that abbey was united to the episcopal table, and his body was translated into the cathedral church. Francesco Agostino della Chiesa in his little work On the Cardinals and Prelates of the Piedmontese region, page 179, says that the abbey of St. Frontinianus was formerly of the Order of St. Benedict and afterward of the Cistercian. The same man, on page 307, in reckoning up some of the abbots of that monastery, premises this about it: In the diocese of Alba, scarcely at the first milestone from the city itself, is seen the very ancient church of St. Frontinianus, once a not obscure abbey of the Cistercian Order, which afterward was united to the episcopal table of the same city, with the translation of the titular Martyr into the cathedral; but when this union was made, I have not hitherto found. That the union was made a few years after the body was translated, Agostino Lubin relates in the Abbeys of Italy, page 5.

[5] from which the body was translated to the cathedral of Alba: Baresianus in the Life of Margaret of Savoy, page 153, asserts that the body was translated from the abbey to the cathedral church in the year 1455, on the XIX day of February. The said Ughelli writes the same things about this translation under Alarinus bishop of Alba, column 290, whose words I subjoin: For the rest, before the year of his death, that is MCDLV, on the XI Kalends of May (read March), the body of St. Frontinianus was translated from the church of his own abbey into the cathedral church of Alba by the venerable lords, Andrew de Tornatoribus of Garessio, presbyter, and Martin de Vitia, presbyter, canons, and also Peter Boussanus, massarius of the said church. And that sacred body was placed in a cabinet above the altar newly built to that same saint Frontinianus, in the said church of St. Lawrence, in the great chapel on the right side. Baresianus calls the first of the canons not Andrew, but Amadeus, and the second Mark. The third he names lord Peter Baresano, and says that he was the massaro of that church. This word Ughelli did not explain. But it has already been set forth in various places in our Work. In volume 2 of March, page 493, these things are read: Now by the name of Massarius is generally understood the chapter's treasurer, or, as they call him, the Thesaurarius, distinct from the archdeacon: and sometimes also the keeper of the treasury or the guardian of the sacred furnishings. In the last sense it is probably taken here, since the matter concerns a translation of relics, the care of which also belongs to the guardian of the sacred furnishings. That exposition of the word Massaro or Massarius indeed displeased the most illustrious Muratori, who disapproves it in volume 2 of the Antiquities of Italy, col. [ ], and expounds Massaro solely as the head of a rustic household: but I doubt whether that learned man weighed sufficiently the whole context of the passage assigned. Certainly neither in that place nor here can the word Massaro be expounded of the head of a rustic household, as anyone will easily see, if only he considers the circumstances. Besides, one may consult the most recently reprinted Italian Vocabulary of the academicians della Crusca at the word Massaro or Massaio; the abbey too united to the bishopric of Alba: some relics of the Saint where the exposition given is likewise read.

[6] Ughelli, under Bernard the successor of Alarinus, has thus about the abbey of St. Frontinianus united to the bishopric of Alba: While he (Bernard, whom he says was promoted to the chair in the year 1456) was sitting, the abbey of St. Frontinianus was united by Pius II to the episcopal table. This therefore happened about the year 1459: for Pius II was created Pontiff on the XIX of August of the year 1458, and Bernard bishop of Alba is said in the necrology to have died in the year 1460, and is there called bishop of Alba, and perpetual commendatory of the abbey of St. Quentin, and of the abbey of St. Frontinianus. The Francesco Agostino della Chiesa praised above, on page 180, mentions another translation of the body of St. Frontinianus in the X century. For in reckoning among the bishops of Alba Fuchardus (he is called Flocardus by Ughelli), set over the said church from being a monk of Breme, he adds this about him: Who conferred on Gezo, abbot of Novalesa, the bodies of SS. Frontinianus and Sylvester, as in the History of Novalesa. But from the words of the Chronicle of Novalesa, which Ughelli adduced at column 285, it is sufficiently gathered that the matter is not of the whole bodies, but of a part of the relics, which is said to have been translated to the abbey of Novalesa, situated in the Val di Susa at the roots of Mount Cenis.

[7] once translated to the abbey of Novalesa. Wherefore I subjoin the words of the Chronicle: In those days, while abbot Gezo was coming to the city of Alba, a certain bishop named Fulcardus conferred on him two great pledges, namely of SS. Frontinianus and Silverius []. But having received the pledges, when he had come to the river Tanaro, the water divided itself into two parts, and lord Gezo passed through dry in the midst of it. Therefore did the irrational creature do this, to make plain by what merits the Saints prevail with God, that it would not even make the vestments of their bearer wet. This Fulcardus loved our place, because he had been a monk. Thus is it read in the Chronicle itself at column 741 in Muratori, who published it in volume 2 of the Writers of Italy*, part 2: but the context in Ughelli is not a little dislocated. The said editor observes in his preface that that Chronicle seems to have been written about the year 1050; but that it is not free from fabulous narratives. I should not dare therefore to vouch for the truth of the miracle here related; but there seems less room for doubt about the part of the relics translated to the abbey of Novalesa, which at that time was famous; but is now inhabited by a few monks of Foligno.

* in Ughelli, of Sylvester