Cosmas

ON ST. COSMAS, AFRICAN ARCHBISHOP,

AT PALERMO IN SICILY,

MORE PROBABLY IN THE YEAR 1160.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Cosmas, African archbishop, at Palermo in Sicily (St.)

BY C. S.

§ I. His memory in the Martyrologies and in Sicilian writers: his deeds drawn out from probable conjectures: his native place perhaps Palermo.

[ ] Ottavio Gaetani of the Society of Jesus, in his Sicilian Martyrology, which he sets forth in the Idea of his Work on the Lives of the Saints of Sicily, St. Cosmas's cult from the Sicilian calendars: commemorates our holy Bishop twice, namely at the 10th day of September and at the 10th of October. In the former place he has it thus: At Palermo, the deposition of the venerable bishop Cosmas: but in the latter thus: At Palermo, the translation of the body of St. Cosmas the bishop, beneath the altar into the chapel of St. Mary, which is in the greatest church. In both places he cites a manuscript Breviary of Palermo. Gaetani was followed by Filippo Ferrari at both days, and by Francesco Carrera at the 10th of September in his Pantheon Siculum, where he recites his elogium. His cult is likewise acknowledged by Rocco Pirri in book 1 of Sicilia Sacra, by Francesco Baronio in book 3, chapter 8, On the majesty of Palermo, and by other writers of Sicilian affairs: and the aforesaid Baronio indeed reckons Cosmas among those who, being placed in the number of the Saints, are worshipped with that veneration of dulia which is fitting, not only by the church of Palermo but by the whole world: which, however, does not seem to be true; since it does not appear that he was honoured with sacred honours outside the archdiocese of Palermo, or at least outside Sicily. Yet that the cult of our St. Cosmas among the people of Palermo is undoubted and ancient will be established from what is to be said. Nor is it an objection that in the former place he is adorned by Gaetani only with the title of venerable: for either he himself, or the author of the manuscript Breviary cited by him, did this because that title is read written in the epitaph to be reported below. Nay, Gaetani himself in his Animadversions on the Lives of the Saints of Sicily shows that other notable Saints were also so addressed.

[2] Not so certain are the Saint's native place, age, deeds, his native place, deeds, and manner of death not so certain: episcopal see, and the manner and place of his death. In Francesco Baronio, just cited, it is faultily read: St. Cosmas, bishop of Palermo; unless perhaps the word Panormitanus designates his native place, not his episcopal see. Faultily likewise Giacomo Adria, in his Topography of Mazara, called him Conus, and numbered him among the bishops of Palermo; as the aforesaid Rocco Pirri and Gaetani observe. That he was an African bishop is certain among others, although concerning the place of his bishopric and the manner of his death there is not so much agreement. Gaetani, in tome 2 On the Lives of the Saints of Sicily, sets forth a twofold opinion, determining nothing himself, in these words: Blessed Cosmas, of what see in Africa he was bishop is uncertain, or by what means he was carried and came into Sicily; it is likewise uncertain to me whether he, as some report from hearsay, while he was offering the divine Host in Africa, was killed by the heathen, and his body thence carried to Palermo in Sicily; or whether, for the cause of religion (the African church being torn asunder by the Saracens who held Africa), being driven out either by fear or by force, he crossed into Sicily and died his last day at Palermo, and it was granted to the reverence due to an excellent Bishop that he should be buried in the greatest church. That he died on the fourth of the Ides of September, in the year 1160 after the birth of Christ, the marble teaches which was before his tomb. Similar things are had by Carrera in the Pantheon mentioned above.

[3] yet he seems to have been sent as bishop into Africa by Roger, king of Sicily, But Antonino Mongitore, in an Italian tract which he entitled Monuments of the life, death and most ancient cult of St. Cosmas, and published in the year 1737, on the occasion of the elevation of that same sacred body in the preceding year, has attempted, and not vainly, to throw light on all these matters. In the first place he asserts as a thing by no means doubtful that St. Cosmas, about the middle of the twelfth century, was archbishop of the city of Africa, once a most strongly fortified city, otherwise called Aphrodisium and Mahadia and Almahdia, and situated on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, twenty leagues east of Hadrumetum. Nor indeed is there wanting a reason which renders this probable. Roger, who at that time reigned in Sicily, a warlike and brave man, having attacked lesser Africa, took Tripoli, Africa and other towns successfully, as among others cited by Mongitore Hugo Falcandus testifies, a contemporary writer of the History of Sicily, in Muratori's Writers of Italian Affairs, tome 7, column 260, where he has this concerning Roger: For Tripoli of Barbary, Africa, Sfax, Gafsa and very many other cities of the Barbarians he subjugated to himself with many labours and dangers. With this agrees the Chronicle of the anonymous of Cassino in the aforesaid collection of Muratori, tome 5, page 142, in which is read at the year 1145, king Roger took Tripoli; and again at the year 1146, king Roger took Africa. Concerning the same African expedition of Roger, Pagi may be seen in his Critica on Baronius at the year of Christ 1146, number 25, and at the year 1147, numbers 26 and 27, where he warns that for the years 1145 and 1146 there should be substituted 1146 and 1147. Mongitore, however, citing Agostino Inveges, thinks that the city of Africa was first taken in the year 1150, led by what reasoning I do not know: about the middle of the twelfth century, but that this must rather be bound to the year 1147 we gather from the aforesaid Pagi.

[4] Mongitore judges further that St. Cosmas was on this occasion created bishop of the city of Africa. And indeed it is altogether probable that someone distinguished with that dignity was sent by the Christian king Roger into the lands of the infidels newly subdued. But that we should believe this to be Cosmas, an old inscription persuades us, cut in Gothic letters on a marble tomb-slab, as we set it forth below, and it is of this kind: In this tomb lies Cosmas, venerable African archbishop, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1160, in the ninth Indiction, in the month of September, on the 10th day. This inscription favours it, I say: for since that Cosmas is here called African archbishop, and the time added, which appears to have been that of his death, coheres excellently with the course of events, it is altogether probable also that this is the very man whom it is credible that Roger gave as bishop to the newly subjugated dominion.

[5] For Pagi, in his Critica on Baronius at the year 1159, and, when it had been taken by the Saracens, numbers 18 and 19, reports that Abd al-Mumin, the Almohad emperor or prince, while William, who had succeeded his father Roger, was reigning among the Sicilians, having taken Tunis, besieged Almahdia or Africa; and when he saw that it could scarcely be stormed, leaving forces which should straiten it by land and sea, subjugated the remaining towns of the Sicilians in Africa, and at length the garrison of the city of Africa, reduced to extremity by want of corn, delivered up that city too to Abd al-Mumin, having however made terms that they and the rest of the inhabitants should be allowed to return into Sicily. These things Romuald of Salerno in his Chronicle, Hugo Falcandus in the History of Sicily, and Fazello On Sicilian Affairs, book 7, chapter 4 of the latter decade, narrate more fully, but without a year: but the aforesaid Pagi shows from Nowairi that that city was delivered to the enemy on the 21st of January in the year 1160, which year the Chronicle of the anonymous of Cassino likewise notes in these words: In the year 1160 the Masmuda took Africa.

[6] From these things indeed it is rightly understood on what occasion the African Archbishop could have died at Palermo in the year 1160, he came to Palermo, and there died, as we have it from the epitaph. He could, that is, have come to Palermo in that very year with the garrison and the remaining Christian inhabitants of the city of Africa, and there after a few months have met his death, which perhaps the hardships endured in the besieged city, and the grief conceived from the loss of the Christian religion in Africa, hastened. All these things, I say, make it very probable that our St. Cosmas was sent not long after the year 1146 by Roger, king of Sicily, as bishop into the subdued part of Africa, and thence, having returned into Sicily in the year 1160, died at Palermo: unless someone should wish to contend that in the aforesaid epitaph the time of the translation of the sacred body into the tomb, and not of his death, is designated. But besides that this would be asserted gratuitously, Mongitore mentions a certain ancient instrument in which he affirms that he is said to have returned to Palermo from Africa. It will be well to have subjoined here Mongitore's own words rendered from the Italian into Latin.

[7] Then (Africa being lost) the holy archbishop Cosmas returned to Palermo together with all the Christian inhabitants of the city of Africa. where also his sacred furnishings were preserved: And although this is not expressly handed down by the authors, yet it is clearly gathered from a certain charter of the archive of the chapter of St. Peter in the royal palace at Palermo, in which is read that the ecclesiastical

furnishings, after his death, which fell in the year 1160, were deposited in sequestration, and after 65 years from his death, in the year 1225, were given to the aforesaid royal chapel; and in that donation they are expressly said to be the furnishings of the city of Africa, brought by archbishop Cosmas when, driven out by the infidels, he came to Palermo. The same is confirmed to us by dom Rocco Pirri, who, being a canon of the said royal chapel, had that charter in his hands, and wrote concerning Nicholas the Cantor in the year 1225: "To this Nicholas were assigned all the goods of the cathedral church and of St. Nicholas of Africa, when Cosmas, archbishop of Africa, came to Palermo together with the goods of his church, to flee from the tyranny of the Saracens. From the Records of the church of saint Peter." And indeed a list of those goods is preserved on parchment in the same archive, from which it is clear that they were splendid and precious.

[8] An error of Rocco Pirri corrected. Thus far Mongitore: but those words of Rocco Pirri wrongly drag our holy Bishop down to the thirteenth century, in which the aforesaid Nicholas flourished: wherefore I judge that he meant to write that there were assigned to Nicholas about the year 1225 the furnishings which St. Cosmas, having formerly come to Palermo, had brought from Africa. Yet I could wish that Mongitore had produced both the instruments which he cites, so that it might have been possible to discern whether the Saint is called African archbishop rather from the city of Africa than from the African dominion which was subject to the Sicilians. Further, from the reasons adduced that opinion becomes little probable which, as reported in Gaetani at number 2, some hand down from hearsay; namely that our Saint, while he was offering the divine Host in Africa, was killed by the heathen; especially since the old inscription of the tomb keeps deep silence about a martyrdom, and no other instrument is cited which mentions it.

[9] Reasons on account of which he is believed a Palermitan by birth, Not so certain are the things which are handed down by some concerning the native place of St. Cosmas. Various writers cited by Mongitore judge that he was a Palermitan; and he himself too, although he confesses that this is not certainly established for him, yet thinks it may be gathered from certain conjectures, which we subjoin from him. Since, he says, he was elected archbishop of Africa by king Roger, who had his royal seat at Palermo, and since after Africa was occupied by the infidels he returned to Palermo, and died at Palermo, and no trace of his cult occurs anywhere but in the city of Palermo, these are indications which make his birth in this city probable. Wherefore on account of these or perhaps other considerations Francesco Baronio, On the Majesty, book III, chapter VIII, Agostino Inveges in his Apparatus of sacred Palermo, dom Vincenzo Auria in his Crucifix, and Father Giovanni Amato On the chief church, were led to call him a Palermitan. Moreover a certain image of him, painted a little less than a century ago in the parish church of St. Nicholas la Kalsa, expressly shows that he was a Palermitan. In the middle porch of this church and in the corners which lie between the arches, the Saints of Palermo are seen depicted, and in that one indeed which is midway between the second and third arch St. Cosmas is seen depicted in pontifical habit, holding in his right hand a shepherd's staff, with this inscription: S. Cosmas, of Palermo. Wherefore we must needs believe that he, being enrolled in the ecclesiastical service, lived adorned with those virtues which rendered him venerable to all in the ecclesiastical state and won for him the favour of king Roger, who then ruled in Sicily.

[10] are set forth. These are Mongitore's arguments, by which he strives to add our holy Bishop to the Palermitans, and which must be briefly examined. And the first indeed of his arguments appears to me altogether weak: for although we should hold as certain what we have said to be very probable, that St. Cosmas was given as bishop by king Roger, who held his royal seat at Palermo, to the subjugated African dominion, I do not see why he must be said to have been born at Palermo rather than in some other town or village of Sicily; since the fame of a holy Man, from whatever place of the Sicilian kingdom he had sprung, or wherever in Sicily he was living, could have led Roger to promote him before the rest to that office. Nor do the rest prove more which he has subjoined concerning the Saint's coming into the city of Palermo from Africa, and his death and cult there and nowhere else flourishing from ancient times. For who would deny that the Saint could, for many other causes, when his episcopal see had been taken by the Saracens, either have been summoned to Palermo by king William, Roger's son, or have made for it of his own accord, and there have died a little after, although he had by no means been born in that city?

[11] But that Palermo alone is read to have venerated him in ancient times could have happened on account of his death there and the burial of his body; just as in a hundred places various Saints are honoured on account of relics carried thither. Finally, the painting which Mongitore mentions teaches indeed what was the opinion of certain Palermitans in the seventeenth century concerning the Saint's native place; but it does not prove it, since its antiquity is not fit to persuade. Wherefore, since other arguments on one side or the other are not at hand, I leave the native place of St. Cosmas in doubt, ready to call him a Palermitan when the learned shall have produced surer considerations for this opinion. For the rest, it is to be lamented that the deeds of this holy Bishop have been so far obliterated that, besides what we have thus far deduced from probable conjectures, we have nothing concerning them.

§ II. The ancient veneration of the Saint among the Palermitans: the old inscriptions of the tomb, and the translations of the body: his cult almost interrupted: the inspection of the relics not without a prodigy.

[ ] The Saint's ancient cult at Palermo Concerning the ancient veneration of St. Cosmas among the Palermitans, Father Ottavio Gaetani writes this in the Lives of the Saints of Sicily, tome 2, page 144 and the following: It is indeed sufficiently established that divine honours were formerly paid to Cosmas after his death. For his body, laid beneath an altar — which honour we know to have belonged to holy men — was in veneration in former times. At the front of the altar was a grating of iron, from which a burning lamp hung: there prayers were poured forth by the faithful, and kisses were piously given to the gratings where they had prayed, through which, with wonderful faith, dust was taken from the sepulchre by the sick who were seized with morbid chills. But the old altar, beneath which the body of bishop Cosmas was formerly laid, stood resting on one of the columns in the body of the church: I should believe that he was translated thither on the sixth of the Ides of October, in the year of Christ 1369, either from Africa, if Cosmas was there slain by the sword, or from the place, if he departed at Palermo by a gentle death, in which they had first buried him, when he grew famous by miracles.

[13] Then he subjoins a twofold inscription, which we shall set forth below, and presently continues: From this altar again the body of Bl. Cosmas was translated into the chapel whose name is holy Mary it is proved from Ottavio Gaetani, by Cesare Marullo, archbishop of Palermo, who, being zealous for the elegance of the church, ordered the altars at the columns to be pulled down, and took care that chapels should be built on the left of the church. In his Animadversions also, page 58, he says thus: There are extant witnesses of the ancient sanctity and cult of Bl. Cosmas, sworn before the notary Antonino Camalio, by the authority and command of Diego de Haëdo, archbishop of Palermo, in the year of the Lord 1598, on the sixth of the Ides of October; which was done at my urging. For I was greatly grieved that the memory of a most illustrious Man was almost extinguished, which our forefathers had honoured with notable observances: for they prayed at his sepulchre, kindled torches and lamps, kissed that blessed stone in which he was laid, offered sacrifice, and invoked his name in prayers. And in ancient times the feast day of Cosmas the bishop was kept in the church of Palermo on the fourth of the Ides of September, at which day in an old manuscript Breviary of the church of Palermo, in the Calendar of the Saints prefixed to it, it is thus written: In the city of Palermo, of Cosmas the bishop. The feast day was discontinued in that church after the Roman Breviary began to be observed by command of Pope Pius V. Thus far Gaetani.

[14] and from Antonino Mongitore. With all these things Mongitore agrees in the aforesaid Monuments, in which, at folio 19, for the lesson of the Office and Mass, besides the manuscript Breviary, which he says was copied from an older one of the year 1452 and had belonged to Simeon of Bologna, he cites a certain Calendar formerly prefixed to a folio Breviary of the church of Palermo, written in Gothic letters about three centuries ago, as he supposes. But although, on account of the Bull of St. Pius V, by which the use of the Roman Breviary was enjoined, the Office of St. Cosmas ceased to be recited, yet Mongitore shows that his cult was by no means for that reason abolished. To this end he mentions a certain simple benefice founded in the year 1526 on the 5th day of April by Jacopo la Liarda, a Palermitan, with the charge of one Mass to be celebrated every week at the altar (the words are the founder's) of St. Cosmas in the greater church of Palermo: and he shows that this benefice was still continuing in the year in which he wrote, 1737, with an unbroken series of beneficiaries. Moreover he adds the testimony of Vincenzo Velardo, canon of Palermo, who in the year 1599 testified upon oath that the priest Leonardo la Liarda had celebrated Mass at the said altar in honour of the said Bl. Cosmas, or had been accustomed to celebrate it.

[15] A twofold inscription of the tomb is set forth That we may pursue in better order the other things which pertain to the Saint's cult, we must begin from his burial. The often-cited Mongitore sets forth, engraved on copper, the marble slab or sepulchral stone which is even now preserved at Palermo in the chief church. Its middle is occupied by a twofold inscription. But on this side and that the effigies of SS. Peter and Paul and of an angel standing by each are carved on the same stone. I have taken care that only the inscriptions from Mongitore's plate, somewhat contracted however, should be engraved by our engraver and inserted into the commentary. In the former inscription we think that the time of his death is noted; for although this is not expressed, yet it is altogether probable from what we have discussed in the preceding section: the other exhibits the year of the translation. From the Indiction, which is written as the ninth, gather that it is the Constantinopolitan, which began from the 1st of September, and which Du Cange in his Glossary shows to have been in use in Italy, and to have been not unusual there at that time also. Gather secondly that an error crept in upon Georg Gualther, or certainly upon his editor, when, in the Tables of Sicilian inscriptions in Graevius, volume 7 of the Thesaurus of the antiquities of Sicily, column [ ], reporting this epitaph, he wrote for the year 1160 the year 1109, the letter L being changed into I.

[16] These things being observed, I set forth the sepulchral slab itself, as it stands in the aforesaid Mongitore, inscription: Pirri concerning this epitaph and as it has been engraved by our engraver, omitting however, as I said, the statues of Saints which are there on either side for ornament. In what church the body of the holy Bishop was first buried, Mongitore says is unknown; yet he thinks that in the second month after his death, being famous for miracles, it was brought by Hugh, archbishop of Palermo, into the cathedral church, and that then the epitaph was cut in the sepulchral marble: In this tomb, etc. For this opinion he cites Rocco

Pirri, who in Sicilia Sacra, Notice 1, book 1, in volume 2 of the Thesaurus just cited, column 76, §9, wrote this: With the same religious care Hugh laid the sacred body of blessed Cosmas, African archbishop (whom nevertheless Adria thought to be Conus, and archbishop of Palermo), honourably in the cathedral church on the 10th of October, a month after his death.

[17] Whence Rocco Pirri learned this I do not know: but I greatly fear his opinion: the body that he referred the translation which the second inscription teaches was made on the 10th day of October indeed, but of the year 1369, that is two hundred and nine years after the Saint's death, by an error to the year 1160 and to the first month after his death. This suspicion is raised in me by Rocco himself, in that he seems to have been ignorant of the later translation, both because he nowhere mentions it, and because he reports only the former inscription from Georg Gualther, correcting however the error which had crept into the year; while of the other he keeps deep silence. And so, since it was established for him from elsewhere that a translation was made on the 10th day of October, he could have persuaded himself that it happened in the same year in which Cosmas died. Further, if that sacred pledge was really first buried in the cathedral church, or translated thither one month after, it is credible that in the year 1185, in which the aforesaid church, as Mongitore testifies, was levelled with the ground that a new one might be built, it was fittingly laid down in another church or chapel.

[18] in the year 1369 it was laid beneath a certain altar: However that may be, it is established from the second inscription which we set forth above that the body of the holy Bishop was in the year 1369, on the 10th day of October, honourably laid beneath a certain altar in the metropolitan church, and piously venerated by the faithful, whether it was then translated thither from another church or from another place of the same church. There are extant in Mongitore, page 23, four accounts of eyewitnesses concerning this altar, which on the 16th day of November of the year 1599, as he has it, or on the 10th of October of the year 1598, as Gaetani will have it in his Animadversions, archbishop Diego de Haëdo ordered to be taken down by the notary Antonino Camalio, at the urging of Gaetani, and which are preserved in the archiepiscopal archive. Of these I subjoin one, to give credit to what has been said, in Mongitore's words, but rendered from the Italian into Latin. Master Biagio la Rocca, beneficiary of our church, aged 74, testified that sixty years before, at which time he served the church from his clerkship, among the other altars he had seen the altar of St. Cosmas, resting on columns, and that beneath it were gratings, behind which the body of the Saint was placed, while before it a lamp burned; and that it was venerated and reverenced by the faithful, who kissed the gratings, honouring him as a Saint; and that afterwards it was translated into the chapel of the Blood of Christ, and placed beneath the altar of the same chapel with a certain inscribed marble. Similar things were testified by Pietro Visconte, commissary of the archiepiscopal court, Andrea Fontana, delegate of the archiepiscopal court, Andrea Fontana the beneficiary, and Vincenzo Velardo, canon of the same church.

[19] whence in the year 1580 it was carried to another altar, The second translation, which Biagio la Rocca just now mentions, occurred in the year 1580, in which, together with the sacred pledge, that altar was removed; concerning which matter Gaetani writes thus: From this altar again the body of Bl. Cosmas was translated into the chapel whose name is Holy Mary, by Cesare Marullo, archbishop of Palermo, who, being zealous for the elegance of the church, ordered the altars at the columns to be pulled down, and took care that chapels should be built on the left of the church. The same has Mongitore, who also explains the place in which it was then laid, in these words: His relics were translated beneath the altar of the chapel then dedicated to the blood of Christ, and afterwards to the most holy Virgin, opposite the chapel of St. Rosalia on the left side of the church. In the same altar they were preserved until the year 1736, as will appear from what is to be said. Wherefore it must be that Rocco Pirri, a writer of the seventeenth century, was again mistaken when in the place cited above he adds: His ashes lie hidden today, in the hope of eternity, beneath the altar sacred to the divine Rosalia, virgin of Palermo: unless perhaps the same altar was formerly consecrated also to St. Rosalia.

[20] and his cult almost extinguished: What was the position of the sacred body beneath that altar, and the construction of the tomb, we shall more fitly say below, where we shall treat of its solemn elevation: let it suffice here to have warned the reader that the whole tomb was covered by the veil of the altar, and that the former gratings, through which, as we have seen, the relics of the Saint were honoured, were removed from it; and hence I think it came about that that former veneration of the faithful gradually grew lukewarm, nay was almost utterly extinguished. Of which matter Gaetani, reported at number 13, deservedly complains; who for that reason urged upon the most illustrious Diego de Haëdo, the archbishop, that sworn witnesses, of whom we made mention at number 18, should be taken down, lest the memory of the holy Bishop should be utterly obliterated.

[21] By the same author's doing I should believe it was done that which he writes concerning the inspection of the body in his Animadversions, in these words: the body, dug up, gives off a sweet odour. In which chapel (of the most blessed Virgin Mary) a few years ago the body of Bl. Cosmas was dug up, at the command of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Giannettino Doria, Cardinal archbishop of Palermo, in my presence. The bones of the most holy bishop Cosmas were seen and handled by me, white indeed and a little larger than ordinary, which as soon as they were uncovered began to breathe out a most sweet odour, a testimony of sanctity, and to fill the chapel, to the wonder and the greatest delight of all. In what year this happened Gaetani does not express; but Mongitore at page 14 observes that it must have taken place between the year 1609, in which Giannettino Doria was raised to the archbishopric, and the year 1620, in which Gaetani died.

§ III. The body is solemnly exhumed: the position and construction of the tomb: an enumeration of the sacred bones.

[ ] The most illustrious dom Giuseppe Stella, The sacred remains of the holy Bishop had lain about 156 years beneath the aforesaid altar of the most blessed Virgin, when at length in the year 1736 they were elevated with great splendour and pomp, and his almost extinguished cult was solemnly and with increase revived. This elevation Antonino Mongitore, an eyewitness of the event, set forth in the often-cited tract, with authentic instruments added, by which he might confirm his statements. Occasion for the elevation of the body was given by the Office of St. Cosmas, which in the following year, namely 1737, was to be inserted into the Breviary of Palermo according to the indult of Gregory XIII, who by a Bull given at Rome on the 30th day of December of the year 1573 had granted to the churches of Spain, and to those which were subject to that kingdom, the recitation of the Office of their own Saints. Hence upon the most illustrious and most reverend lord Giuseppe Stella, archdeacon of the cathedral church and at that time, the see being vacant, vicar general, and upon the whole chapter, there was cast a great desire of examining the relics of St. Cosmas, and of restoring them, drawn out from their hiding place, to their former veneration.

[23] This therefore he set about on the 27th day of November of the same year 1736, at the petition of the Chapter of Palermo and brought it to an end, as is clear from the instruments published by Mongitore, some of which, from which the reader will at the same time understand the manner of the proceeding, I subjoin. On the twenty-seventh day of November, 15th Indiction, 1736. Since it came to the notice of the most reverend Chapter of the holy metropolitan church, the chief church of this kingdom of Sicily, that in the venerable altar under the title of the Immaculate Conception, within the said metropolitan church and beneath the level of the said altar, there was found the sacred body of saint Cosmas of Palermo, African archbishop; it petitioned the most illustrious and most reverend lord, doctor of sacred theology, the archdeacon dom Giuseppe Stella, vicar general of the chapter, the see being vacant, for the disinterment of the said sacred body from the said place, to the end [*] that it might have better reverence and veneration of the faithful.

[24] orders the tomb to be solemnly opened Therefore the aforesaid reverend lord de Stella, capitular vicar general, betaking himself to the place in the said venerable chapel of the Immaculate Conception, together with the reverend and admirable canon, doctor of sacred theology, dom Lorenzo Migliaccio, fiscal advocate of his tribunal, canon dom Mariano Maurigi the chancellor, canon dom Antonino Mongitore, canon dom Saverio Amico, canon dom Francesco Ricordo, canon dom Francesco Testa, the theologal canon, doctor of sacred theology, dom Ignazio Spia, and the penitentiary canon, doctor dom Giacomo Longo, and the reverend first terminator and master of ceremonies dom Carlo Gandolfo, the beneficiary dom Gismondo Russo, sub-warden of the fabric, the magnificent dom Francesco Santanna, fiscal proctor, and me the undersigned dom Giuseppe Xiacca, pro-master notary of the said tribunal, ordered the master masons who were there that the first marble stone in the inner floor of the said altar, where the tomb was, should be taken up.

[25] and the bones, And the said marble stone, both well and diligently examined by the aforesaid reverend canons and the other ecclesiastical persons assisting, was found in the manner written below; namely: on the right, carved, the divine Paul the Apostle, holding in his right hand his cloak before his breast, and in his left a sword: on the left, the divine Peter the Apostle, blessing with his right hand, and holding the keys in his left; and with the inscription written below cut in the middle of the stone, of the following tenor: In this tomb lies Cosmas, venerable African archbishop, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1160, in the ninth Indiction, in the month of September, on the 10th day. And below: Into this altar the aforesaid body was translated in the year of the Lord 1369, in the 8th Indiction, on the 10th of October, on a Wednesday. Beneath were found two stones of the rock which is called di S. Maria di Gesù, and these being taken up there was found what is commonly called un intercisato di mattoni, pietra e calcina (that is, a vaulting of bricks, stone and lime), well constructed in the form of a tomb. Which being taken away, there straightway appeared that aforesaid tomb, in which lay the whole body dissolved.

[26] having been examined by physicians, to be carried to the treasury of the church: And it was ordered by the aforesaid most reverend de Stella, capitular vicar general, that the bones of the aforesaid body and the other things found in the said tomb should be raised from the said tomb, and be shown before the said most reverend lord de Stella, capitular vicar general, and the aforesaid reverend canons and the other ecclesiastical persons and officers of the said tribunal; by whom, a diligent examination being made, with the assistance of the reverend priest, doctor of arts and medicine, dom Girolamo Battaglia, and the doctor of surgery dom Gioacchino Parisi, it was distinguished limb by limb: and they recognized it to be a whole and entire body: and moreover there were found some fragments of a board and of nails, showing that the aforesaid body had formerly been shut in a wooden chest; and also fragments of a wrought ivory staff. Finally the aforesaid bones were placed in three wooden caskets with cotton wool, which, being bound with a red cord and marked with the seals of the most reverend chapter and of the fabric, it was ordered should be transferred into the treasury of the greater church of Palermo; as was straightway done. Whence, for the future memory of the matter, by the order of the same most reverend de Stella the present act was drawn up.

Dom Giuseppe Xiacca, pro-master notary.

[27] In the reports of the masters Pietro Battaglia

and Francesco Benso, the position of this tomb masons, and also of the masters Antonino and Baldassare Lupo, carpenters, who were present at the exhumation, the very place and position of the body is more clearly expressed, and therefore I judge that it will not be unwelcome to the reader if I transfer some of them hither. Among the rest, therefore, this is had in Italian: The pall of the altar of the Immaculate Conception of Bl. Mary, which is on the left side of the said metropolitan church, was raised, and this being taken away there was seen a white marble slab, carved from most ancient time with figures and inscriptions. Which slab, by order of the said greater archiepiscopal court and in the presence of the reverend priests, masters Carlo Gandolfo the terminator and Sigismondo Rosso, and of other persons, was unfastened by the deponents and removed from its place; and beneath it was found a work of masonry, which being demolished by the same, there appeared a certain space four palms wide, which corresponded to the Gospel side of the said altar. There are subjoined the relics of the Saint found in that place, which from the physicians' enumeration we shall list below; meanwhile receive the rest of the instrument.

[28] When the aforesaid deponents had afterwards surveyed the aforesaid space, and its construction are set forth: they perceived that the aforesaid space was bounded by a distinct floor compacted of rough stones and earth: so that with one consent all judged that the aforesaid space could not run further. Likewise, inquiring diligently according to the precepts of their art, they found by experience that the floor of the aforesaid space rested upon the pavement of the said chapel, and that its topmost edge ended beneath the line of the altar step. Whence they gathered that the coffer in which the bones had been kept had been placed in that hollow as in a singular place, and different from every other burial. Thus far from the aforesaid instrument, to which I subjoin another also, in which the relics of the holy Bishop, examined by the physicians, are enumerated in Latin.

[29] I, the undersigned priest, doctor of sacred theology and master of arts, dom Girolamo Battaglia, the sacred bones found in it, ordinary physician of the most reverend chapter, and of the reverend clergy of the metropolitan church of Palermo and of the great and new hospital of this happy and most faithful city of Palermo; and also I, the undersigned master of arts, dom Gioacchino Parisi, do give sworn faith and testify to all and singular who shall inspect these letters, how, being called by the most illustrious and most reverend lord, dom Giuseppe Stella, capitular vicar general, the see being vacant, sitting in his tribunal, to review and examine the bones kept beneath the altar of the Immaculate Mother of God, in one of the chapels of the cathedral church, in a wooden urn, on whose front sepulchral marble stone this inscription stands: (In this tomb lies Cosmas, venerable African archbishop, etc.), having entered upon a most careful examination of the bones one by one, we found the bones of the body written below, whose texture of mass and quality seemed a little greater than the ordinary.

[30] But the number, character and nomenclature of the bones, distinguished according to the threefold region of the human body by the method described by the authors, from the testimony and enumeration of the physicians is here described, namely:

Bones of the head.

The cranium and two jaws divided into two parts.

In each jaw four molar teeth, two canines, one incisor.

The bone of the forehead divided into two notable parts.

Two bones of the eyebrow, likewise separate.

Bones of the thorax.

Ribs divided into notable parts, forty-five in number; but others divided into fragments, of which however one part of moderate size appears mixed with lime, a nail, and a portion of the ivory pastoral staff.

Of the collarbones one entire, and that the left; but the right divided into several parts.

Of the shoulder-blades one entire, the other divided into portions.

The right upper arm-bone entire; but the left divided into two parts.

The apparatus of each forearm, the greater and the lesser, divided into six parts.

Eighteen entire bones of the fingers; but three parts and the rest reduced to fragments and to dust.

Of the bones of the back, eleven entire vertebrae; the rest broken and divided into fragments.

The sacrum entire.

Bones of the remaining limbs.

[31] are enumerated. The right hip-bone entire, but the left divided into seven parts.

The right thigh-bone almost entire, but the left divided into two equal parts.

The kneecap divided into nine parts.

Of the shin-bones one entire, and the fibula almost entire; the other shin-bone greater by half, and another fibula divided into three parts.

Twelve entire joints of the feet, but the rest divided into several fragments.

Other bones divided into greater and lesser fragments, indeed innumerable, and others reduced to dust: yet all that have been described thus far appeared as whitish bones.

Besides the bones, a carved ivory pastoral staff, divided into almost innumerable portions, was found.

In testimony of all which we have given these letters subscribed by our own hand and confirmed with our own seal. At Palermo, on the 27th day of November, 15th Indiction, in the year 1736.

✠ Priest, doctor of sacred theology and master of arts, dom Girolamo Battaglia, I confirm, as above.

✠ Master of arts, dom Gioacchino Parisi, I confirm, as above.

Place ✠ of the Seal.

And these things indeed were done on the 27th day of November of the year 1736, when also those sacred remains, enclosed in three wooden caskets, were laid for a little while in the treasury of the church, until they should be solemnly elevated with public veneration, as we shall show in the following section.

add ut* (that).

§ IV. The former veneration solemnly decreed to the Saint and his relics, and paid: certain benefits obtained by his patronage.

[ ] In a most ample assembly The relics of St. Cosmas having been examined, as we have seen above, the aforesaid most illustrious Stella resolved to revive the Saint's former cult, and to restore his sacred remains to the veneration of the faithful. To this end he summoned to the archiepiscopal palace pious and learned men both from the clergy and from the religious Orders, as also the two physicians who had enumerated the sacred bones. All these, sixty-seven in number, whose names Mongitore recites, met on the appointed day in the greatest hall of the palace. That day was the 12th of December of the same year, as Mongitore testifies: but in the letters of the most illustrious Stella, to be recited from number 35, it seems to be said that these things happened on the day after the exhumation, that is, on the 28th day of November. Yet we must altogether stand by Mongitore's statements; since he at page 17 expressly asserts that within the narrow space of the few days which had intervened between the exhumation of the relics and the approbation of which we are treating, he had gathered together what he recited in that assembly on the 12th day of December for their approbation. Add that the aforesaid letters of the most illustrious lord are signed on the 13th day of December, that is, the day after the public cult of the relics had been decreed in the same assembly: from which head perhaps that error crept into Stella's letters: for on the day before the sacred remains were carried back again in procession to the treasury, they were once more examined, as we shall see.

[33] The place of meeting was the most ample hall of the palace, the relics are approved, splendidly adorned, and in it there had been raised an altar conspicuous with magnificent ornament and many wax candles, beside which they had placed the relics of St. Cosmas upon a certain table. All being brought to their seats, the reverend lord Lorenzo Migliaccio, canon, doctor of sacred theology and fiscal advocate, set forth the mind of the most illustrious lord, and contended from the ancient cult of Cosmas that he must be held for a canonized Saint, and therefore publicly venerated, and that his relics were deservedly to be exposed to the veneration of the faithful. He added that nothing new was here introduced, but only that an ancient and approved cult was renewed; which the most illustrious Stella had for that reason resolved to restore publicly in their presence, that they might instruct the people concerning this matter. After these things the reverend lord Antonino Mongitore, being bidden to speak, recited what he had gathered concerning the Saint's deeds and his ancient cult, never wholly discontinued; and showed moreover that those bones which they had drawn out from the altar of St. Mary were the very sacred remains of St. Cosmas, African archbishop, and were to be held in veneration. All which things he published in the aforesaid tract which we are using.

[34] These things being done, by the unanimous consent and acclamation of all, and are restored to their former cult; the public veneration of the relics was decreed, and they were again examined by the physicians, and enclosed once more in the same caskets sealed with a double seal, and, the hymn Te Deum with a prayer of thanksgiving being sung amid the festive applause of bells and of smaller cannon, the assembly was dismissed. But on the following day, which was the 13th of December, the aforesaid relics were carried back with a procession of the clergy to the metropolitan church and its sacred treasury, until greater honours should be prepared for the holy Archbishop. Further, for the confirmation of all the aforesaid I subjoin the decree which the aforesaid vicar general Giuseppe Stella issued on that occasion, and which is extant in Mongitore.

[35] The name of Christ being invoked. We, doctor of sacred theology, dom Giuseppe Stella, etc. as is proved Since such is the weakness of the human condition that even the due veneration [*] and sacred cult toward the Saints — who, being secure of their own salvation, live solicitous also for ours — grow lukewarm through the injury of times and by oblivion gradually creeping in, and thence are utterly extinguished; we certainly grieved when first we learned from pious and learned men that in our metropolitan church there is preserved the sacred body of Bl. Cosmas, our fellow-citizen of Palermo and African archbishop, whom, both by the faith of approved historians and by public monuments, they clearly demonstrated to us — after he had, on his return from Africa on account of the invasion of the Saracens, closed his last day here at Palermo in the kiss of the Lord in the year 1160 — to have been entombed in our cathedral church with the honour of sanctity, and there through a long course of times from the year 1369 to have been venerated at an altar which at that time was situated on the right of the nave of the greater church, with a lighted lamp, with a throng of people, with divine Offices, nay with the institution of an ecclesiastical benefice in his honour, and so to have been invoked as a Saint by the vows of all: until in the year 1580, the altars which were in the said nave being destroyed for the adornment of the church and translated into the chapels of the same church, the aforesaid sacred body lay honourably for a long time in a chapel and beneath the altar which in our times is venerated under the invocation of the blessed Virgin conceived without original stain.

[36] from the decree of the most illustrious Giuseppe Stella We meanwhile, when we had weighed all these things with diligent consideration, judged that it would be to our purpose and to that of our office if, the sacred remains of the blessed Archbishop being restored to the former veneration of the faithful, we should pay with increase that honour and cult which is due by every right to the Saints who are our fellow-citizens, and which had long been interrupted by the clouds of negligence spread abroad by the prince of darkness. Therefore, the divine power being implored, that from his countenance our judgment might come forth, we with our whole archiepiscopal capitular court, some canons of the same sacred metropolitan church being also called in, visited the place, and with the help of workmen reverently uncovered that same altar which had been pointed out by public documents, in which there first appeared a marble stone, carved on this side and that with the images of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, on which we joyfully read through the following inscription: In this tomb lies Cosmas, venerable archbishop

of Africa, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1160, in the ninth Indiction, in the month of September, on the 10th day. Into this altar the aforesaid body was translated in the year of the Lord 1369, in the 8th Indiction, on the 10th of October, on a Wednesday.

[37] issued upon this matter. The stone being taken thence, we reverently adored the sacred relics, conspicuous by their white colour, as they are described by the historians, and by a size a little surpassing the human stature, and approved by the testimony and oath of excellent physicians, and we laid them back, together with the fragments of the ivory pastoral staff, in wooden caskets, fittingly wrapped, so far as it could be done, in cotton wool, and secured them with the seals of our capitular court and of the cathedral church, until on the following day, the counsel of very many theologians being taken, in the greatest hall of the archiepiscopal palace, having again examined them by the testimony of physicians and with the approbation of the theologians present, and having moreover heard the patron of the treasury of our archiepiscopal capitular court, in the presence of the same and of very many other canons of the aforesaid church and of the parish priests of our city, in full court and sitting in due form in tribunal, we pronounced that they are the true and identical relics of St. Cosmas of Palermo, African archbishop, and restored to them the due cult, Mass and Office according to the former custom, and at length with ecclesiastical rite, with hymns and songs, our clergy and chapter going before, carried them back into the metropolitan church, and gave them back to the veneration of the faithful, the people applauding on every side; as by the force of these presents, for the perpetual memory of the matter, we do give them back, and again, so far as is needful, declare by ordinary authority that the aforesaid sacred relics are the true and undoubted relics of the same blessed Cosmas; which we greatly rejoice will redound to the glory of God most good and great, who is magnified in his Saints, and to the honour of the heavenly court. In faith of which matter and of our declaration we have ordered these presents to be made, confirmed with our subscription and strengthened by the impression of the seal which we use. At Palermo in the archiepiscopal palace, on the 12th day of December 1736.

Archdeacon dom Giuseppe Stella, capitular vicar general.

Place ✠ of the Seal.

[38] The Saint's relics being approved and elevated in this manner, The Saint's cult promoted at Palermo and throughout his diocese. the most illustrious Stella and others strove diligently to promote his cult. And first indeed it was decreed that the holy Bishop should be venerated with an annual Office and Mass, not only at Palermo, but throughout that whole diocese, on the 10th day of September. There was also founded by the lady Rosalia Serria an ecclesiastical benefice, simple as they call it, on this condition, that on his feast day a Mass should be celebrated every year. Moreover, undertaking to adorn the chapel in which he had lain, they laid up the smaller fragments of the bones, and the ashes of these and of the flesh and garments, together with the remains of the old coffer, in a fitting urn in the same place of the altar, the old sepulchral stone being again fixed in front, adorned here and there with gold. And that they might satisfy the desire of the faithful, they placed a notable portion of the sacred body, enclosed in another wooden casket skilfully wrought and covered with gold, in the middle of the same altar, which, the veil being drawn back, they might show to the people for veneration on the more solemn feasts, through iron gratings overlaid with silver and through a crystal set into the casket. They also exposed for public veneration an image of the Saint painted in pontifical habit. This work lasted until the month of March, on the 29th day of which, in the year 1737, a three days' solemnity was begun in that chapel in honour of St. Cosmas by order of the same vicar Giuseppe Stella: all which things the studious reader will find related at greater length in the aforesaid Mongitore.

[39] Finally I subjoin some miracles or benefits Certain benefits obtained by his aid. which Mongitore in chapter 6 reports in Italian to have been divinely conferred at that time through the patronage of St. Cosmas, and which I have turned into the Latin tongue. On this occasion, therefore, he says, of the finding and manifestation of the relics of the holy archbishop Cosmas, the divine Goodness deigned to approve his sanctity by various miracles and benefits granted through his patronage. Let it suffice me to have reported here some, which were examined with due diligence and affirmed upon oath by various witnesses.

[40] Antonio Ambrosi, son of Giovanni and Antonia Ambrosi, A boy in danger from smallpox, two years and one month old, had been seized with malignant measles, and, being diligently cared for, had already recovered and was left by the physician as sound. But on the next day, the 5th of December of the year 1736, he was seized with a sharp fever, which afflicted him so vehemently that, lying with his eyes closed, he neither ate nor uttered a word articulately; whence within three days he was brought to the last of life and almost to his final breath. On the eighth day of the same month, when the physician, who supposed that he had recovered from the measles (since he had left him better), visited and observed him, he foretold to his mother and to the bystanders that he would certainly die in the coming night. Yet he ordered a vein of the arm to be opened; from which opening the sick child drew no relief, except that he opened his eyes a little, while the fever meanwhile grew exceedingly worse.

[41] after cotton wool which had touched the Saint's bones had been applied to him, On the 12th day of the same month Father Onofrio of Palermo, lector and preacher of the Friars Minor of the Observance, uncle of the sick child (or mother's brother, for the Italian is zio, which word signifies both), heard from Father Friar Paolo of Palermo, a Religious of the same Order, a jubilate lector, and one of the theologians who had been present at the declaration of our Saint's relics, that they had been happily found and approved as relics of St. Cosmas. Wherefore he obtained from the same Paolo a little cotton wool which had touched the relics that were found, and, animated by a living faith, hastened to the house of his sick nephew, and related to the little boy's mother and to the others who were present the finding of the relics. Then, trusting in the Saint's patronage, both he and the rest, falling on their knees, recited once the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory be to the Father; and presently rising, Father Onofrio signed the sick infant's forehead, saying: May our Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession and merits of St. Cosmas, bishop and confessor, free you from this sickness. Amen.

[42] he recovers: After this, leaving the cotton wool on the sick child's head, he returned to his monastery. When an hour's space had elapsed, the same Religious uncle, visiting the sick child again, found the mother with the bystanders rejoicing, and the boy laughing and eating, and the fever very slight; and he found that a certain green lump had been cast out of the infant's mouth, by no means however stinking, of the size of an ordinary nut, but so hard that a piece of wood was needed to break it up: and its inmost parts were found to be likewise of a green colour. The physician, returning on the same day, found the little boy free of all fever, and on the next day thoroughly sound. Thus, to the Saint's glory, Father Onofrio testified upon oath in a certain report, judging the aforesaid event to be truly miraculous.

[43] another is freed from an ailment of the eye and from another disease, Master Giuseppe Trischitti, son of master Giovanni and mistress Rosalia Trischitti, from a certain ailment of the eye had become so dim-sighted that he could not at all discern the things set before him, and took hold of one thing instead of another. He had moreover been seized with smallpox and fever, and was sinking into a lethargy. Master doctor Gioacchino Parisi, one of the physicians who, as we have said, were present at the examination of the relics of our St. Cosmas, gave to the boy's mother a little cotton wool which had touched the Saint's remains; which she applied with living faith to her son's head and eyes, and within the space of two hours the boy awoke, free both of all weakness of the eyes and of the danger of the lethargy. Wherefore the aforesaid master doctor Gioacchino Parisi affirmed the marvellous fact by an authentic attestation.

[44] another is freed from dysentery. Ignazio Salamanca, long afflicted with bloody dysentery, when he had used various medicines uselessly, having heard of the finding of St. Cosmas's relics, betook himself to the cathedral church, and there in the chapel where they had been hidden commended himself to the Saint with living faith, and suddenly received by his patronage the health he desired.

[45] Spells driven off from a woman Onofria la Cava had long been sick, and although she had used various medicines for the restoring of her health, nevertheless the disease persisted stubbornly in the same state without any relief. There was applied to her with firm confidence some cotton wool which had touched the relics of St. Cosmas, and presently by an evident sign it appeared that she had been vexed by a malign spirit: to which many who had been present bore witness.

[46] Something similar happened to Paolino Montalto, dwelling in the square of Baida, and from a man: who for six continuous months had been vexed by a quartan fever. He had used various medicines in vain: but after a little cotton wool which had touched the Saint's bones had been applied to him, it presently became clear that he had been possessed.

[47] An infant of fourteen months had been seized with an ailment of the throat, by which it was prevented from sucking its mother's milk, ailments of the throat and of the eye cured. and for that cause all despaired of its life. There was applied to the little boy's neck some cotton wool of saint Cosmas, and presently the obstruction vanished, and the boy recovered altogether. The priest master Niccolò lo Giudice, injured in the right eye by the bite of a mouse, was in evident danger of blindness: and since the physicians feared to apply medicine, both because the injured part had swollen much, and because it was very dangerous, they commended the sick man to the holy Archbishop, and applied in the evening to the injured eye a little cotton wool which had touched the Saint's relics. On the next day he was better, and within a short time was altogether healed. More concerning this holy Archbishop I have not found.

perhaps debita veneratio* (the due veneration).

perhaps prodiret* (might come forth).