ON ST. LIGORIUS, MARTYR,
WHO IS VENERATED AT VENICE.
A COLLECTION.
Of his cultus, miracles, and relics.
Ligorius, martyr, who is venerated at Venice (St.)
BHL Number: 4935
J. S.
[Ligorius inserted into the Roman Martyrology from manuscripts and the Catalogue of the Saints,] Baronius in the Roman Martyrology at this day commemorates St. Ligorius the martyr in these words: On the same day, of St. Ligorius the martyr, who, living in the desert, was killed by the heathen for the faith of Christ. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology gave these words in French, as is his custom, but noted in the margin that it is a mere confusion with St. Lidorius of Tours, of whom we shall presently treat. But St. Lidorius did not live in solitude, nor was he killed by the heathen, so that I cannot perceive on what foundation that censure rests, or what likelihood it has — unless perhaps Castellanus wished to indicate that Ligorius was referred to this day from mere confusion. Baronius praises in his notes old manuscripts, and Peter de Natalibus in the Catalogue of the Saints, book 8, chapter 73. And this writer in that place gives such a eulogy of holy Ligorius the martyr: Ligorius the martyr suffered in the parts of Greece. He, a Greek by nation, having left the world, while he dwelt in the desert of a vast solitude and was unknown to men, was found among the brambles by \ heathen hunters. And while he was thought a robber, being asked who he was, he answered that he was a Christian sinner. Whom they, hearing the name of Christ, hateful to them, presently slew with their swords.*
[2] in which his life and martyrdom are narrated, And his body, carried over from the parts of Greece by the Venetians, was placed in the monastery of St. Lawrence. And since the day of his passion was unknown, to a certain sick boy, set as it were at the last, a certain saint appeared and said that he was Ligorius, and admonished the boy to tell the abbot \ of St. Lawrence's that the day of his passion was to be celebrated on the 13th of September — that is, on the day on which he had suffered for Christ; and, when this was announced, he should receive his health by his merits. And the boy, coming to himself, announced to the abbot \ these things which he had seen, and straightway rose whole from his bed. And thus it became known thenceforth to all that the day of Ligorius' passion was the Ides of September. The same things Greven expressed more briefly in this manner: On the same day, of St. Ligorius the martyr, who, being killed in the parts of Greece for the name of Christ, was afterward translated to Venice. But since the day of his passion was unknown, he himself designated this day by a vision. Maurolycus, Canisius, and Galesinius agree as to most things; but the last wrongly asserts that the body is kept at Venice in the church of St. Zacharias, which will be corrected below. These things seem to suffice to take away every doubt concerning a confusion of St. Ligorius with St. Lidorius of Tours, of whom none of the aforesaid things was ever asserted.
[3] Yet I should not wish anyone to gather from this that I hold for certain and undoubted everything as they are read also in various Venetian manuscripts, and in the Office, which Peter de Natalibus narrates concerning St. Ligorius. I see indeed that the things which the praised writer reports could have been drawn from manuscript monuments, and were probably drawn from Venetian manuscripts. But for this cause they are not the more certain or likely. I have in hand two manuscript accounts agreeing with the aforesaid, certainly in the chief points, but somewhat fuller. The first of these was long ago communicated to our predecessors from a manuscript codex, doubtless Venetian; but of what church is not added. The other we received in the year 1748 from a parchment codex, or most ancient Passionary, of St. Mark's of Venice, as is written above, through the most excellent lord Flaminio Corner, a Venetian senator, who likewise transmitted the lessons of the old and the new Breviary
of the nuns of St. Lawrence, which were formerly read on the 8th day of July for the feast to be mentioned below. Those accounts rightly agree with one another, not indeed in words, but in the facts narrated; and from these Peter de Natalibus doubtless drew his own material, who composed the Catalogue of the Saints at Venice.
[4] Nevertheless I am fully persuaded that little or no credit is due to those Acts, but that account seems fabulous: so far as they are written concerning the life and death of St. Ligorius. If we attend to what is related, we perceive that neither the time in which he lived is indicated, nor the place, except in a certain vague way, in the parts of Greece. Then, how did the saint's solitary life, and the death inflicted by heathen hunters, become known at Venice? In the codex of St. Mark's these things are said to have been reported by those who carried the body to Venice; nor is it added who or of what sort those men were, or at what time they carried the sacred relics to the Venetians. What credit therefore can we give to all these things? There is added another reason too, which makes everything as suspect as possible. For the lord Corner, just now praised, that nothing which was written at Venice concerning St. Ligorius might escape us, transmitted also another Office from an ancient Breviary of St. Lawrence's, or the lessons of the second nocturn, in which things entirely different are reported concerning St. Ligorius, but no more likely. For in those lessons the saint's character is praised in general words, but of his solitary life there is deep silence. He is said to have been led to the tribunal of the prefect Africanus, to whom he answers constantly; and thus the lessons end, not even the saint's death being reported. For these reasons the things related concerning the saint's life and death appear to me fabulous, and I suspect that nothing certain about them ever became known among the Venetians.
[5] As concerns the revelation about the day on which the saint was crowned with martyrdom, less incredible is the saint's revelation about the day of his martyrdom, this could have become known at Venice, and is not so incredible. Thus to St. Germanus of Auxerre the day of the martyrdom of St. Julian of Brioude was revealed, as is read in the Life of St. Germanus written by the priest Constantius, among us in tom. VII of July, p. 215. That revelation is asserted in the three manuscripts mentioned above. In the first it is set forth thus: And when a dispute had arisen among the clerics concerning his passion — because his venerable victory, in which he had been martyred by the impious, was uncertain as to what day or what time it had happened, and therefore they did not know in what month or on what day they ought to celebrate his feast in this country to which he had been brought, since those who translated him from Greece to Venice said that it was in the month of May, but others that it was in September; the abbess of St. Lawrence's with her sisters likewise doubting which were to be believed — a little child oppressed with a great weakness, whose house was situated not far from the said monastery, saw blessed Ligorius coming to him and standing at his side. To whom the boy, terrified, said: "Who are you, who have so terrified me, a little one and set in so great a weakness?" To whom he said: "I am Ligorius the martyr." And to him, as though lifeless, the saint said again: "Rise quickly, hasten with all speed; go, tell the abbess of St. Lawrence's that today is the third day before my feast; for on the thirteenth day of the month of September you shall celebrate my yearly feast; and after you have told these things, you shall receive the health of your body." And when he had said this, he disappeared.
[6] yet it is not free from difficulties. Then the little child called his mother to him, had himself led to the monastery, and set forth in order to the abbess what had been commanded him. And she, well aware, was zealous to indicate this revelation to the bishop. And he, taking up the Martyrology, found it just as it had been told the little child. In the same manner the matter is narrated in the codex of St. Mark's; but it is only briefly touched upon in the ancient Office of the nuns. Further, what is said in the manuscripts about the matter being indicated to the bishop, and the Martyrology being consulted by him, is omitted in Peter de Natalibus, and is likewise omitted in the more recent Office of the nuns, which we have printed in the year 1705. For the lessons of this Office agree with Peter de Natalibus, one only circumstance of the revelation excepted: for he everywhere says the abbot of St. Lawrence's, but the Office, with the manuscripts, the abbess. This is certain, that in the monastery of St. Lawrence nuns have dwelt from the ninth century, although before it is said to have been of men. Therefore I judge that abbess should rather be read than abbot. But it is strange that neither the name of the abbess nor of the bishop was anywhere expressed. I doubt also whether what is said of the Martyrology is firm enough. For hence someone might think that the name of St. Lidorius of Tours was found in the Martyrology by the bishop, and thence it came about that he believed St. Ligorius to be commemorated in the Martyrology on that day. Against this suspicion, however, stands Peter de Natalibus, who in book 11, chapter 129, no. 246, commemorates St. Lidorius of Tours on the Ides of September, calling him Lycorius, and rightly distinguishes him from St. Ligorius. For since he wrote at Venice, it does not seem that there the day of St. Lidorius' death was taken for the day of St. Ligorius' martyrdom.
[7] [It is doubtful whether St. Ligorius is commemorated in the Hieronymian calendars;] Besides, it is not improbable that St. Ligorius was really found in the Hieronymian martyrologies; for in those which have lately been published we have not obscure traces of that name. In Florentinius, besides the clear announcement of St. Litorius or Lidorius of Tours, these things are read: At Antioch, the birthday of the holy Timothy and Lidorus. Timothy, already commemorated on various preceding days, I have observed among the things passed over. But Lidorus, who is joined to him, may easily have been put, by the change of one letter, for Ligorius. More faultily the same is named in the Corbie codex Theodorus. The Labbean Martyrology among us also mentions Lidorus, and the Gellone in d'Achery Lidorius, both without the place, and besides Lidorius of Tours announced with the place added. Perhaps therefore the name of St. Ligorius was recorded in some Hieronymian calendars. I confess, however, that this seems to me by no means certain, on account of the silence of other codices; for from that silence there arises the suspicion that the name of St. Lidorius of Tours was, as happens frequently enough, repeated on the same day. The contrary suspicion too can arise: namely that the name of Ligorius, as not sufficiently known, fell out on the occasion of St. Lidorius being commemorated on the same day, because he was believed to be the same as him.
[8] Whatever be the truer view of these matters, the nuns of St. Lawrence at Venice claim for themselves, for some centuries at least, the body of St. Ligorius the martyr, [but he is venerated with a twofold feast in the church of St. Lawrence, where his relics are kept.] and celebrate a twofold feast of that saint: the one with a double rite on the 13th day of September, because they believe the saint was crowned on that day; the other on the 8th day of July, likewise with a double rite, but this is kept at the same time of St. Barbarus the martyr, of whom we treated at the 14th of May. The title of this feast is: The Finding of SS. Ligorius and Barbarus, martyrs. In the Offices prescribed on both days, both in the prayers and in the lessons, the body of St. Ligorius is said to rest in the church of St. Lawrence. Receive, reader, the prayer from the Office of this day: Be favorable to us thy servants, we beseech thee, O Lord, through the glorious merits of this holy martyr Ligorius, whose body rests in the present church; that by his loving intercession we may always be protected from all adversities. Through our Lord etc. Bucelinus in the Sacrarium Benedictinum at this day agrees concerning the body of St. Ligorius kept there. Our Janninck, when in the last century he was returning from Rome to Belgium, visited the monastery of St. Lawrence at Venice, and noted these things concerning the body of St. Ligorius: The head of St. Ligorius is in the monastery; the remaining bones are mixed with other relics of other saints beneath the altar, as they say. In the Office of the Finding, the 8th of July, a miracle is narrated, attributed to SS. Ligorius and Barbarus, of sight restored to a certain priest of Genusium (in one manuscript is read, of Genoa), who was blind. But that has already been reported in the Addenda to the Acts of St. Barbarus, tom. VII of May, p. 770, where it may be seen.
Notes\ a* (by)
\ the manuscripts, abbatissæ*
\ abbatissæ*