Aderitus

ON ST. ADERITUS, BISHOP OF RAVENNA,

IN ITALY

About the beginning of the IInd Century.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Aderitus, bishop of Ravenna in Italy. (S.)

BY J. P.

§ I. The chief writers who have made mention of the Saint. Acts falsely attributed to him.

[ ] Of the antiquity and praises of the most celebrated city of Ravenna frequent mention is made in our Work on occasion of very many Saints, The Saint, whom and several of his successors, tradition holds, whose Acts have come to be illustrated through the several months of the year on various days, but by name in the month of July at the XXIII day, when the Acts of St. Apollinaris, its first bishop, apostle and singular patron, were discussed at length. Today there occurs in the sacred Fasti St. Aderitus, whom others call Abderitus and Adheretus, the disciple of the said Apollinaris, and indeed the first among the eleven bishops who were his immediate successors, all of whom, if the tradition be true, were chosen for the government of that church by the token of a dove divinely gliding down. Of these seven have hitherto been published by us — for all are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, and all are honoured in the church of Ravenna with an Office, one excepted: in the month of February Severus, Calocerus and Eleuchadius; in March Agapitus; in April Liberius; in May Marcianus; in July Datus. Of the three that remain, Marcellinus is honoured on the V of October; Probus on the X of November; but Proculus, although he has no place in the Roman Martyrology, nor an Office in the Proper of Ravenna, is nevertheless marked with the title of Saint (which may be examined on the 1st day of December) both commonly elsewhere and especially in the mosaic work of the Ursian church, that is, the cathedral, which, on the witness of Bacchini in his Observations on Agnellus, part 1 page 175, was founded in the year 1112. For in it that prelate is seen, like the others just enumerated, with the holy Spirit appearing above his head in the form of a dove, and with this inscription: S. Proculus, as Girolamo Fabri relates, who is to be cited more often in the course of this work.

[2] were elected to the episcopate by a miracle, Our predecessors made mention of that mosaic or tessellated work, and of the other things which had been shown them at Ravenna as monuments of that popular tradition, as they themselves call it, in tom. III of March, page 426, on St. Agapitus: but neither here nor elsewhere, although they now and again related the words of the Ravennese writers pertaining to it, did they more openly declare their mind upon that tradition, much less undertake to defend it. I believe it was because the monuments and documents, at least so far as they are produced to prove a like election in the other ten bishops as well as in the one St. Severus, seemed less fit to carry this out fully and to the whole desire of the Ravennese. It is indeed a somewhat difficult business, and often an odious one, to touch the traditions of particular churches about things which absolutely could have happened, but which you cannot solidly prove actually to have happened. For not seldom it comes about that the more studiously and diligently documents are heaped up and exposed to the eyes of critics, the more, because of their weakness, does the tradition itself come off as suspect and doubtful. For my part, since the tradition about election to the episcopate by the sign of an appearing dove looks no more to St. Aderitus than to his successors down to St. Severus, treading in the footsteps of my predecessors I leave it to others to discuss more fully. Let the curious reader consult, if he please, Girolamo Fabri, part 2 of the Sacred monuments of ancient Ravenna, page 344 and following, where he will find the tradition defended with all his might; but before he passes judgment, let him not neglect the praised observations of Benedict Bacchini on Agnellus from page 173; nor let him pass over Ludovico Muratori's Preface to the Spicilegium of Ravennese history, part 2 of tom. 1 of the Writers of Italian affairs, page 527. We meanwhile shall see what the ancients have left in writing about the deeds of our Saint.

[3] The first to offer himself is the anonymous biographer of St. Apollinaris, published by us in tom. V of July, he is commemorated in the Acts of St. Apollinaris, which he used. Ado, and writing thus at page 345: Meanwhile he dwelt in the house of the tribune within the city of Ravenna … and performed … Masses … and Baptisms … with his disciples. And so within twelve years he ordained two presbyters, Adheretus and Calocerus; but Marcianus, a most noble man, and Leocadius [\] the philosopher he made deacons. For he appointed six clerics, with whom day and night he sang psalms to the Lord. Of the value of these Acts there was a discussion in the volume cited, page 342, and it was proved that they are ancient from this, that they were employed by the most ancient martyrologists, especially by Ado in the ninth century, who culled from them a good long elogium. How true that is no one will deny who shall have compared those Acts with Ado's elogium. Here is a specimen in a few words, which, as looking only to this matter, I copy out from Ado at the XXIII day of July: In whose (the tribune's) house afterwards, within the city of Ravenna,*

(St. Apollinaris) performed Masses and Baptisms with his disciples for twelve years; and he ordained two presbyters, Adheretus and Calocerus: but Martianus, a most noble man, and Leucadius the philosopher he made deacons, and appointed six clerics, with whom day and night he sang psalms.

[4] In the same century as Ado of Vienne, namely the ninth, about the year 840, in Agnellus's pontifical book, Agnellus, called also Andreas, composed the Pontifical Book, or Lives of the pontiffs of Ravenna, which Work, cleared by himself of rubbish, Benedict Bacchini — named once and again — abbot of St. Mary of Lacroma of the Order of St. Benedict of the Cassinese Congregation, illustrated and published. In it, presently after the Life of St. Apollinaris, part 1 page 137, our Saint is treated of in a single chapter under this title: The Life of saint Aderitus, and these things are read: Aderitus I, a holy and God-fearing man, was ordained presbyter by the most blessed Apollinaris, and like a wise architect built upon the foundation of his master and teacher. For his sheep he unceasingly besought God that they might depart from the worship of idols and confess the living God, Father and Son and holy Spirit; and many in his times received Baptism after the storm of persecution. Then he joined many to God. He died in the city of Classis, as they assert, on the last Kal. of October, some say. He was buried in the basilica of blessed Probus, not far from the church of B. Apollinaris, about one stadium. He sat … years … months … days… Thus far Agnellus, of what sort a man he was and of what credit worthy, see, if you please, in Bacchini's Preface, or with us the chief extracts thence in tom. V of July, page 343.

[5] Blessed Peter Damian, who was himself also a Ravennese by country, illustrious for his writings, and in two and who died Cardinal bishop of Ostia of the Holy Roman Church in the year 1072, spoke twice most honourably of St. Aderitus: first in the Sermon on St. Eleuchadius, and then in the third Sermon on St. Apollinaris, bishops of Ravenna. I transfer both passages hither, and the former indeed, for a cause to be indicated afterwards, somewhat more fully than would otherwise be needful.

[6] Sermons of B. Peter Damian Thus, then, he begins the Sermon on St. Eleuchadius, in the Roman edition of the year 1608, tom. 2 page 16: Today's festivity, dearest brethren, heaps up a twofold joy for your holy devotion — nay, for ours — because while we celebrate the solemnities of the venerable confessor Eleuchadius, we must presently also call back to memory the illustrious deeds of the blessed triumpher of Christ, Apollinaris. For since, as Solomon says, the glory of a father is a wise son, so the cause of the one hangs upon the other: so that whoever shall have worthily related the praises of the one cannot be silent about the notable proclamation of the other. And since Truth says: The son cannot do anything but what he hath seen the father doing; so this blessed nursling followed his father's footsteps, so held the straight line in preaching the true faith, so by living religiously showed himself a client accordant with his holy teacher, that he deservedly succeeded in the governance of him whose imitator he had been in sanctity. For as blessed Peter, prince of the apostolic senate, is known to have had among the rest three more eminent disciples, who afterwards succeeded him in order on the citadel of the Pontificate — first, namely, Linus, then Cletus, third Clement: so likewise blessed Apollinaris too had four excellent disciples, succeeding him in the ecclesiastical governance after the happy glory of his martyrdom, namely Aderitus, and this blessed Eleuchadius, whom the present sermon is to serve, then Marcianus, and last Calocerus.

[7] A Life under his name In the third Sermon on St. Apollinaris, in the same place page 90, treating of spiritual martyrdom, B. Peter discourses thus: Nor yet do we say this as though only those be held worthy of heavenly rewards who are struck by the swords of persecutors. For often many men of perfect and praiseworthy life have wished with the whole desire of their mind to attain the summit of martyrdom; but because divine Providence judged otherwise, they were compelled to remain in their own degree: who, even if they were by no means consummated by martyrdom, are nevertheless not at all strangers to the glory of martyrdom. For the holy disciples of B. Apollinaris, namely Adheretus and Calocerus, Marcianus and Eleuchadius, although they were by no means smitten by the sword of executioners, are yet in no wise believed to have been strangers to the desire of martyrdom; but almighty God, who mercifully chose them before the ages, appointed them in that order which he willed, by the deep dispensation of his counsel. In the Work which Ludovico Muratori inserted, marked with the title of the Spicilegium of Ravennese History, in tom. 1 part 2 of the Writers of Italian affairs, not only is frequent mention made of St. Aderitus, but there is also exhibited a fairly long Lucubration, to which this title is prefixed: Here begins the Life of saint Aderitus, second archbishop of Ravenna. First of his name and its interpretation: but before we bring forward anything from it, we must first hear the editor himself, assigning the place whence he dug out the Work and pronouncing his judgment upon it; then certain other things to be noted beforehand about the age and purpose of the author, or rather, as it seems to us, the collector.

[8] inserted in the Ravennese Spicilegium Muratori says, then, in the Preface page 527, that in the same codex of the Estense library from which Agnellus's Pontifical Book of the church of Ravenna was dug out there are also contained the Lives of the earlier bishops of Ravenna and certain other little Works enumerated in the same place, which he wished to be dug out of the darkness both for other causes and because he judged that their publication would be welcome to those who have Agnellus, upon whom and upon that most celebrated city greater light might thence shine; and he then adds that all these little Works proceed from authors who were alive after Agnellus himself. So he in general of all of them; then in particular of the Lives of the Saints: I would have you weigh this also, he says, that the Lives of the saints Aderitus, Eleucadius, Calocerus and Proculus (if indeed sermons are to be given that name, such as narrations of this kind really are) are dispatched either with subtleties or with pious digressions in such a way that when you have come to the end you will scarcely attain anything certain about them beyond the bishops' names. Doubtless this was the custom of rude ages. Was a holy man to be praised whose Acts none survived? Then he was painted in oratorical words such as he was thought to have been and ought to have been; or the whole expectation of the hearers was fed with empty words and twisted allegories. Nothing further does the said editor observe about the authors, the author or the collector of those Lives.

[9] For my part I am persuaded that there was one collector of them all, which is shown to have been made after the 13th century and that he was far later than the 13th century. The first is urged by the exordia of the several Lives, in which there is constantly given some sort of etymology of the name of the Saint who is treated of; the second I am bidden to believe by the following words of the Life of St. Proculus, page 552: The venerable father dom Philip, ONCE prelate of this holy see, being stirred and likewise moved by frequent visions, urgent apparitions and spiritual admonitions, appointed that the aforesaid church (of St. Theodore, now marked with the title of the holy Spirit) should be yearly visited in procession and solemnly by all the clergy and people on the fourth day of the week immediately after Pentecost, in honour of the holy Spirit… Which prelate's institution is observed until today. For Philip, of whom mention is here made as of one long dead, lived until the year 1274. No one could easily say for certain what was the origin, what the cause of this collection. Perhaps Agnellus's Lives of the Saints seemed to someone too concise and contracted, and for that reason he increased and amplified them with popular traditions, conjectures, allegories and like ornaments and helps scraped together from every quarter. Perhaps also — for, as Muratori observed, most of them are orations rather than relations of things done — they are nothing but sermons delivered to the people on the festivals of the Saints, to which the title of Life was afterwards added.

[10] Whatever it be, the collector seems chiefly to have bent his mind to this, to have been made by an unskilled man, that he might establish the tradition of the election of the first bishops made by the holy Spirit appearing in the likeness of a dove. For such an election, of which Agnellus was silent in the Lives or Elogia of the ten successors of St. Apollinaris in the episcopate of Ravenna down to St. Severus, is not only affirmed of them all in that collector in the Lives of SS. Calocerus and Proculus, and in the Life of St. Aderitus of him in particular; but it is even stuffed into the Life of St. Liberius, which you have in the said volume page 557, and which the good man judged to be the Life of the first Liberius, who sat in the 2nd century and to whom the tradition belongs, whereas it is in fact the Life of the third Liberius, who flourished at the expiring of the 4th century. Whence, says Muratori, one may deservedly wonder at the drowsiness of a man too supinely deceived. It must now be seen what sort of Life of St. Aderitus that man has thrust upon us in the same place, page 546. The title I gave at num. 7: the prelude on the name is this: Aderitus, that is, calling back to God, or standing intrepid according to the rectitude of God, or associated with God or with the upright: and the exordium finally of this kind: Today's festivity, dearest brethren, heaps up a twofold joy for your holy devotion — nay, for ours. For while we celebrate the solemnities of the reverend confessor Aderitus, we must necessarily, etc.

[11] is the Sermon of B. Peter Damian I do not copy out more, because, as these words, the name being changed, are plainly the same as those which I gave above at num. 6 out of the Sermon of B. Peter Damian on St. Eleuchadius, so likewise is the rest of the exordium as far as the last clause, which has been changed in this manner: So likewise blessed Apollinaris too had three excellent disciples, succeeding him in the ecclesiastical governance after the happy glory of his martyrdom; namely this Aderitus, Eleucadius, and last Calocerus. When I first noticed this it occurred to me to compare B. Damian's Sermon further with the pretended Life of St. Aderitus: and behold, I found that the whole of it, excepting a few things whose source I shall tell hereafter, was likewise excerpted from that Sermon, almost in the manner in which it is done in Breviaries, when for the second Nocturn of the Office of a Saint whose Acts are not extant there are prescribed lessons out of the Homilies or Sermons of the Fathers on another Saint, only the names being changed. Yet with this difference, that in Breviaries lessons are assigned from homilies taken in such a way that they suit all — whether Martyrs, or confessors, or virgins, so far as they were such — and cohere fitly among themselves: whereas here things are applied to St. Aderitus which neither suit him nor, since here and there some things proper to St. Eleuchadius have been omitted, cohere among themselves: so that the reader does not sufficiently perceive whither the discourse tends.

[12] on St. Eleuchadius, For Peter Damian, the exordium recited above being ended, pronounces thus: Now this Eleuchadius was a philosopher, as is narrated in the very History of his blessed master (Apollinaris). The wisdom of Plato, therefore, was overcome by the disciple of a fisherman.

Then he is chiefly occupied in elucidating and extolling that theme, namely the wisdom of the world overcome in St. Eleuchadius by the simplicity of Christ: which things signify nothing in Aderitus, chiefly because in his pretended Life the proposition or text already given is omitted, nor is it anywhere said that Aderitus was a philosopher, or converted by St. Apollinaris from heathenism to the Christian faith, to which Peter Damian particularly alludes in his sermon. Hence Muratori, cutting away some things in the pretended Life, says: What follows I have amputated — trifles, namely, of men wishing to speak, and having nothing to speak to the matter proposed. Beyond doubt the learned man would not have amputated these things only, but would have cast the whole lucubration out of the Spicilegium, if he had fallen, as it fell to me, upon B. Peter Damian's Sermon.

[13] with a few things removed Further, in two places a few things proper to St. Aderitus have been thrust into that Sermon thus altered. First about the middle, in these words: Among whom (the disciples of St. Apollinaris) the blessed Aderitus shone forth like a golden star, who, as a just and God-fearing man, as is found written in the records of the ancients, was ordained presbyter by the most blessed Apollinaris, and, like a wise architect profitably building upon the foundation of his master, besought the Lord unceasingly for his sheep, that they might depart from the worship of idols and confess the living God, Father and Son and holy Spirit. In whose times many after the storm of persecution humbly received the Sacrament of Baptism, whom afterwards he joined to the Lord. By whose merits indeed interceding, and by the excellences of his virtues, at the appearing call and spiritual promotion of the holy Spirit, descending in the likeness of a dove, he deserved to be raised by the Lord to the archiepiscopal see of Ravenna, and to be called first in rank among the holy archprelates of Ravenna kindly taken up by the election of the dove. The first part of these words the industrious man filched from Agnellus's Elogium; the other he perhaps hammered out by his own effort according to popular tradition.

[14] Besides, to the last part of the same Sermon he stitched on the following clause: things proper to Aderitus. And our most blessed father Aderitus passed to the Lord in the city of Classis on the V Kalends of October, and was buried in the basilica of saint Probus, as some assert, not far from the church of saint Apollinaris, about one stadium. Which today remains venerably placed, and his benefits flourish, with many sacred bodies of the Saints in our Ursian church, on the altar which is named the Ark of the saints; to the praise and glory of our Saviour, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen. The former of these clauses, if you take away a word or two, Agnellus claims again for himself: whence the other was procured I do not inquire; but certainly it would cohere better with the former if the compiler had substituted whose body for the relative pronoun which. For the rest, of the day of his death, the place of burial and the time of the translation, the discourse will return hereafter.

\. otherwise Leuchadium*

§ II. The Saint's episcopate; his death; the place of his burial.

[ ] He was the disciple of Apollinaris, That our Saint was a Greek by nation is the common assertion of the more recent writers: and Girolamo Rossi, book 1 of the History of the Ravennese, adds that he is called Abderitus by very many, perhaps from Abdera, a city of Thrace. Agnellus supplies no elucidation here in the Elogium given above. Yet, as Bacchini observes on the Life or Elogium of St. Calocerus, Agnellus was persuaded that all the successors of St. Apollinaris down to Peter, who was seventeenth in order, were Greeks by nation; seeing that in the said Peter he writes thus: From the time of B. Apollinaris, together with this man, his predecessors were of Syria. Bacchini adds that by the name of Syria the parts of the East are understood; yet, he says, the merely Latin names of several of the prelates who preceded Peter seem to stand in the way of an assertion of this kind. However it be, Aderitus certainly was the disciple of St. Apollinaris, and from him first received at Ravenna the Order of the presbyterate, as is plain from Agnellus, Ado and the biographer of St. Apollinaris, cited in the preceding §.

[16] He also succeeded first to the same, his master, in the episcopate, and his successor in the episcopate; in all likelihood about the year of Christ 75, about which we fixed his death in tom. V of July at the XXIII day; but of his deeds nothing is known to us beyond what is related in general in the Agnellian Elogium. I do indeed find one miracle, as wrought by him while yet living, but since only Thomas Tomai narrates it, out of the book on the miracles of the Christian faith by Peter Zefferus, an author unknown to me, the silence of all the others whom I have seen makes the thing doubtful. Yet I transfer hither a summary of Tomai's narration from the History of Ravenna, composed and published in Italian in the year 1580: While Aderitus governed the church of Ravenna, a very rich man of the said city, who had already before been brought over from idolatry to the faith of Christ, was struck by a sudden death in the middle of the square. When Christians and gentiles flowed thither, St. Aderitus too was present, who, bending himself down and forming the sign of the Cross, bade the man rise in the name of Jesus Christ. Presently he, as though loosed from a light sleep, rose, rendering praises to God and thanks to the Saint. Then, turning to the crowd, he related the sight he had had of the place in which the worshippers of idols were atrociously punished, and among them designated some by name. Then he strongly exhorted the gentiles that, leaving the superstitions of profane images, they should receive the Baptism of Christ, without which no one can be saved: whence not only those standing by, but many other gentile inhabitants of the city also, struck by the astounding miracle, acknowledged the true God, and all were washed in the sacred laver by the hands of St. Aderitus.

[17] he died about the beginning of the 2nd century; It is not expressed in Agnellus how long the Saint held the episcopate, or how long he prolonged his life; yet since the same Agnellus asserts that many in his times received Baptism after the storm of persecution, the more recent writers conclude that he lived until about the hundredth year of Christ; and indeed the second persecution of the Church, most likely designated here, ceased with the death of Domitian in the year 96, whom therefore Aderitus survived for some time: but for how long, who could divine? For that reason I have marked his death broadly about the beginning of the second century. Of the place and day of his death Agnellus indeed thus: He died in the city of Classis, as they assert, on the last Kal. of October, some say: but in marking the day I have met no follower of Agnellus; all, whether they have followed his transcript more correctly, or have detected the error from a more ancient instrument, set his death on the fifth Kal. of October, that is on the XXVII day of September, on which St. Aderitus is honoured with an Office and is inscribed in some Martyrologies. Some, I say, and those the more recent: for although he was known to Ado, and most likely to Bede and Usuard also, as the disciple of St. Apollinaris and ordained presbyter by him, yet he obtained no place in their genuine Fasti.

[18] In the Florentine Auctarium of Usuard the announcement on this day is such: buried in the city of Classis, At Ravenna, of saint Adentus archbishop and confessor: the name, that is, being corrupted, and the title of archbishop added by prolepsis, which his successors assumed only long afterwards. More accurately Cardinal Baronius in today's Roman: At Ravenna, of saint Aderitus bishop and confessor. But although according to Agnellus he died in the town of Classis, perhaps he is here announced at Ravenna, either because in antiquity Ravenna also bore the name of Classis, as Jordanes will have it On the Affairs of the Goths, or because Classis was formerly a part of Ravenna: Now of Ravenna — the words are Rossi's, book 4 of the History, page 224 — there were five parts, and those noble ones: Classis, Cæsarea, Ravenna, Palatiolum and Tauresium. Classis is today about three thousand paces distant from Ravenna. Further, that St. Aderitus was buried there also Agnellus testifies, saying: He was buried in the basilica of blessed Probus, not far from the church of B. Apollinaris, about one stadium. For the basilica of St. Probus was built in the town of Classis, though some time after our Saint's death: wherefore understand Agnellus's words thus, that St. Aderitus was buried in that place where afterwards the church of St. Probus was built.

[19] in which place a church The biographer of St. Probus, bishop of Ravenna — presently to be mentioned more fully — relates these things about the beginnings of that church and the bodies resting there in his own time. The venerable pontiff Maximian, then, most devoutly built to his honour the church of the blessed prelate Probus, which he himself had made famous by his own holy body, and adorned it on the outside with a devout apparatus of mosaic: and there beneath the altar he set his sarcophagus, two companions of his own order being added, whom together with him, as had been fitting, he becomingly laid in the tomb; but let no one besides be troubled thereat, because he zealously took away the bodies of the Saints from elsewhere and placed them together beneath the altar of almighty God, as we have said before: but of the companions it is specially doubted by what name, while they lived, they were called. Yet it is believed for certain that they were of his own order in every way. Some, indeed, suppose that they were Aderitus and Calocerus: whom, that is, we venerate as we do the venerable Probus. Whether they be so or not, we neither deny nor affirm. That other pontiff whom we mentioned before, Maximian, appointed for the celebrating of the most famous names of the Saints untiring companies of divers clerics, that by their services they might entreat the Lord for the sins of the Saints; and these things being done, very many obtained health from divers sicknesses by their prayers.

[20] By the former words that writer intimates clearly enough, as it seems to me at least, St. Probus afterwards erected, that St. Probus, the fifth bishop after St. Aderitus, first erected the church in which he himself also was afterwards buried, in all likelihood for the sake of his predecessors SS. Aderitus and Calocerus resting there: for of the latter also Agnellus writes: He died and was buried, as some say, on the III of February in the basilica of St. Probus the confessor. But the following words of the anonymous author I so understand, that St. Maximian, who flourished in the middle of the sixth century, and whose Acts we published at the XXII day of February, restored the fallen church, adorned it and perhaps enlarged it, and dedicated it to St. Probus, whose body and those of others he more becomingly laid away. Girolamo Rossi explained the matter in the same way in the History of Ravenna; but Bacchini, who, unless I am mistaken, did not see the anonymous biographer of St. Probus, does not approve the opinion, pronouncing thus in his Observation on the Agnellian Life of St. Probus: Rossi says that Probus was buried in the temple which had been founded by himself in the town of Classis … not far from the sea. But Agnellus indicates that he was buried where his church was afterwards built; for he would not have built a church for himself.

[21] For my part I have turned over Agnellus, but I have not found that afterwards. which was then called St. Probus's, The words of Agnellus in St. Probus are these: Then all the people, mourning, buried his body with exceeding reverence, and his tomb is venerated among us until the present day, and his church is situated in the parts of the East… The said basilica has been built beside the Ardica of blessed Euphemia, which is called at the sea. As to what Bacchini adds, that Probus would not build a church for himself,

any prudent and pious man will readily allow it to be taken in this sense, that the Saint did not intend that it should be called by his own name, much less that it should be dedicated to himself as to a Saint. But what contradiction is there in its having been built by him in honour of God and out of reverence for SS. Aderitus and Calocerus buried there, and afterwards in course of time being called by his own name, because he too was buried in it and was honoured as a Saint? For what? Is not the Milanese church, which, on the witness of St. Gregory of Tours, St. Ambrose built by his own effort, which he himself, Ambrose, writes in the epistle to his sister Marcellina that he dedicated and enriched with the bodies of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, and in which at last he too was buried, called the church of St. Ambrose? Nay, was it not from the beginning marked with his name? Hear Paulinus, his notary, in the Life written to St. Augustine: When his (St. Ambrose's) body … was lifted to be carried into the Ambrosian basilica, in which it was placed, etc. Hear St. Augustine, book 9 of the Confessions, chapter 7: For when they (the bodies of SS. Gervasius and Protasius) had been made known and dug up, and were being translated with due honour to the Ambrosian basilica, etc. Hear at last St. Ambrose himself in the epistle to his sister already cited: On the following day we translated them into the basilica which they call the Ambrosian, etc. Shall we thence suspect that Ambrose built a church for himself in any other sense than we have said? I return to the anonymous biographer of St. Probus.

[22] and in which the relics were more becomingly placed in the 6th century. He, a sincere man as I judge, was unwilling certainly to affirm that the two bodies which St. Maximian laid beneath the altar with the body of St. Probus were those of SS. Aderitus and Calocerus; because he knew that other holy bishops of Ravenna also had been buried in the same church, of whose number those two bodies might have been: although for SS. Aderitus and Calocerus there stood both the opinion of other men and the people's peculiar veneration towards these two: for of them alone he says: Whom, that is, we venerate as we do the venerable Probus. Now there were said to be buried there, besides others of whom Agnellus speaks doubtfully or keeps silence, SS. Datus, Liberius, Agapitus and Marcellinus, all predecessors of Maximian, all, as I gather from Agnellus's words, more becomingly laid away by the same Maximian at the same time, although not in the same place of the church. For Agnellus writes thus in the Life of St. Maximian: But the body of B. Probus, with the other bodies of the holy pontiffs, this holy man embalmed with spices and placed well, and on the front of that church he adorned with divers things the effigies of B. Probus and Eleuchadius and Calocerus, and beneath their feet you will find… Indeed by the other bodies of the holy Pontiffs Agnellus must have meant to designate here not only the two of SS. Aderitus and Calocerus, but all which he had before related to have been buried in the church of St. Probus.

[23] Agnellus's text bearing on this At the end of the text, where I have caused points to be printed, Bacchini notes that an inscription is wanting. That it has perished I regret the more because a doubt arises whether an error does not lurk in the remaining words, which doubt the inscription would most likely resolve: before I unfold it, it is well to hear Bacchini's Observation on the same words. And hence the little fable about the body of St. Eleucadius translated by Constantine the Great to Pavia, to St. Michael's, is blown away, since Maximian is praised for having embalmed with spices the body of B. Probus with the other bodies of the holy pontiffs, and placed it well, and set on the front of that church the effigies of B. Probus and Eleucadius and Calocerus. Any other translation of Eleucadius, even one later than the age of Constantine, was unknown to Agnellus, of which, if he had learned it, he would by no means have omitted to speak here. I have no mind to inquire anew into the truth of the said translation, on which our Henschen may be seen at the XIV day of February: but I do not see what strength the Agnellian words have to blow away that which Bacchini calls a little fable: for them to have strength, it ought to be possible to conclude from them that among the bodies raised by Maximian was the body of St. Eleuchadius also; but neither do I see by what way that can be done.

[24] is examined. Agnellus treats of the church of St. Probus, and of the elevation of the bodies both of that St. Probus and of the other holy bishops who had been buried in the same; but St. Eleuchadius was not buried in it, as Agnellus himself testifies in Eleuchadius, saying: He was buried outside the walls of Classis, where until today a church has been built and consecrated to God in praise of his name. Was St. Eleuchadius perhaps translated from his own church to the church of St. Probus? Agnellus nowhere said this, nor has any other yet been found who said it, nor can Bacchini say it, lest the argument which he uses against the men of Pavia be turned back upon himself. But, you say, if the body of St. Eleuchadius was not in the church of St. Probus, what cause was there that the effigy of Eleuchadius, rather than that of Aderitus or of some other bishop buried there, should have been set on that church and adorned by St. Maximian? I answer that for this very reason I doubt whether an error does not lurk in the Agnellian words; whether, I say, the name of Eleuchadius has not been thrust into them for the name of Aderitus. Most of what has been related above increases the doubt. Aderitus, according to Agnellus's relation, was buried there first of all, then Calocerus, then Probus, who erected the church in all likelihood out of the reverence with which he was borne towards them. Afterwards Maximian restored the church or built it anew and enlarged it, three effigies of Saints being set on it. Of what Saints? Surely of Probus the first founder, and — this is my conjecture — of the two for whose sake Probus had erected the church, Aderitus and Calocerus, and whom afterwards, according to the testimony of the anonymous author in the Life of St. Probus, the people venerated as they venerated the venerable Probus. In the tenth century, as will be seen from what follows, three bodies of Saints were found beneath the altar of the church of St. Probus without inscription or indication of names; they were believed to be the bodies of SS. Probus, Aderitus and Calocerus. For what cause? Let my conjecture deceive me, yet I shall say it: because they were deservedly thought to be the bodies laid by St. Maximian in that more honourable place of those who were specially honoured there and whose effigies were seen on the front of the church.

§ III. The finding and translation of the relics; the cultus of today.

[ ] In the 10th century they were found in the church of St. Probus, The bodies of St. Aderitus and of the other prelates lay in the church of St. Probus at Classis until the tenth century, in which they are said to have been translated to Ravenna and deposited in the metropolitan church; where also today we read in the Proper of the Saints of that church that they are honourably laid beneath the high altar. The History of the translation is extant in part 2 of tom. 1 of the Writers of Italian affairs, page 554 and following, in the Life of St. Probus, which is inserted in the Spicilegium of Ravennese History, and which for that reason at first held me in suspense. For I feared lest, as in that Spicilegium St. Peter Damian's Sermon on Eleuchadius was thrust upon us for the Life of St. Aderitus, so here something similar might lie hidden. Therefore I read it through entire, and its beginning indeed, a collation being made, I presently found to be nothing else than Agnellus's own elogium of St. Probus, or a summary of the Life: but that the rest proceeded from a sincere and upright man the manner of writing compelled me to believe. You have a specimen in his words recited at num. 19, where he says that he is unwilling to affirm about the bodies of SS. Aderitus and Calocerus what others supposed; in which matter writers, especially of the affairs of their own country, are not always so scrupulous.

[26] The author does not disclose his name, but signifies clearly enough that he was a canon and was present at the finding of the bodies, as an eyewitness writes, His lucubration properly belongs to the Acts of St. Probus, to be illustrated on the X day of November; yet since St. Aderitus has a great part in it, I exhibit a synopsis sufficient for a knowledge of the finding and translation, with his own words mingled in here and there. He says that the thing was done under the care of Peter the younger, fourth archbishop of Ravenna, whom he afterwards calls the Bolognese, and of whom Rossi writes thus, book 5 of the History of Ravenna, at the year 923: In the place of Constantine, Peter the Bolognese is substituted, who is called in the public records in this manner: "Peter, servant of the servants of God, by divine grace the fourth archbishop, the younger, the powerful." He was of a Bolognese house, and if we reckon back the earlier archbishops of this name, he will be counted the fifth. Now he ascended the chair of Ravenna in the said year 923, and occupied it until 970, in which he willingly left it. And so within that space of time, namely about the year 963, as some relate, on the day before the Kalends of February according to our anonymous author, some men of almost all the orders of the clergy went forward to carry out the business, among whom he himself also was, as is plain from what follows.

[27] three bodies, and among these St. Aderitus's, But when we came most devoutly to the same church of the oft-named blessed Probus, he says, prostrate on the ground we offered many prayers to the Lord, that he would deign to fulfil our vow, if it were pleasing to him. Yet, when we had risen, we conferred much among ourselves about what was to be done in so awful a business, being ignorant where the sacred body (of St. Probus) lay buried. Then, some things being interposed in which he sets forth the efforts of each to find the treasure, the Priest, he says, dug round about … about the altar, and striking a brick stone, secretly opened a small opening of the coffer beneath the altar. Which being seen, we removed the table of the altar, with some of the priests resisting, rejoicing with great joy. We lifted the lower stone with the little columns by which the table was supported: invoking the names of the Saints, we came to the covering of the coffer… All who were present, looking within with bowed face, saw a wooden vessel, already in its lower part consumed in some places by rot from age, but whole in its upper part. Which being opened, they discern three bodies of Saints buried there, two together, the third set apart by the interposition of a piece of wood. And they debated countless things among themselves, since they found no note or inscription of who they were, or by what name they were called in the world while they lived.

[28] as is believed, and translated to Ravenna, Yet those who were present judged that the one set apart was blessed Probus, and the two joined together the saints Aderitus and Calocerus. With the greatest devotion, therefore, they lifted the bodies of the Saints out of the coffer together with the wooden vessel. There they left some portions of the Blessed ones' remains for their commemoration. Wrapping linen cloths carefully, as was fitting, about the vessel and the longed-for treasure, and binding them with bands, they laid all upon the prelate's seat. A little after, he relates two miracles by which the divine goodness deigned to manifest the sanctity of the bodies. The first was the fair weather which followed as soon as the bodies were raised, the sky having been troubled for a month with violent rains; the other was health restored to a man seized by a strong fever at the touch of the litter. He then sets forth in what order and manner the sacred relics were carried to Ravenna, with how great

joy, apparatus and pomp they were received by the archbishop and all the people, and deposited in the metropolitan church, where they began to shine with new benefits. But how many, he says, were restored to health from fevers, and how many from adverse languors of the body, by their prayers, we are not able to tell; he mentions two in particular: one conferred on his own kinsman, who, labouring under a violent fever, came to the church with firm faith and lent his labour to the building of a mausoleum for the Saints, and was freed from his evil; the other on himself, when at their invocation he recovered entire the hearing he had almost lost.

[29] and deposited beneath an altar dedicated to them But on the third of the Nones of March — again they are his own words — an altar was most studiously and perfectly dedicated by the Bolognese prelate (Peter, namely, of whom at num. 26) for their most happy honour, where their suffrages are suppliantly besought by all with bowed mind. Not long after, by a divine revelation, as the same anonymous author narrates, it was understood that five other bodies of Saints besides were resting in the same church of St. Probus at Classis; wherefore men were sent by the archbishop to search for these also: Who, searching strenuously in the aforesaid house of blessed Probus, at length with much sweat found two tombs, hidden with diverse care, and, when they had been ingeniously opened, saw three bodies buried in one of them and two in the other. And drawing these out of the wooden chests, because they were exceedingly old, and embalming them in fine linen, they carried them to Ravenna with many hymns, exulting with great joy. But because it was the second day of the Rogations before the celebration of the Lord's Ascension, the whole people with the prelate himself, as we said before, came to meet us. Then a certain man, straitened by that infirmity which the physicians call mania, while the bodies of the Saints were being carried to the Ursian church, was brought along by his own sons in great fury, whom, as far as he was able, he strove to devour with his bite: yet being thus constrained he was led with them as far as the aforesaid church, and with great force was laid beneath these and the three former ones; and although he was not straightway snatched from his malady, his own fault standing in the way, yet by their prayers the time was not long protracted before he was restored to health; whom afterwards we saw sufficiently modest and devout, making supplication at the bodies of the aforesaid Saints.

[30] Him too we asked whether he were well: together with five others in the metropolitan church; he answered, with modest countenance, that by the prayer of the Saints, not by his own merit, God favouring him, he was so sound that he felt nothing of the weakness of his past languor. But these five bodies of Saints have not yet been laid in the ground. For they still remain wrapped in fine linen upon a certain chamber beneath the vault of the church. These bodies, as the author has intimated before, were then believed, and are believed to this day, to be those of SS. Proculus, Datus, Liberius, Agapitus and Marcellinus, pontiffs of Ravenna; to which opinion Agnellus so far assents as he asserts that in his time also the four latter were said to be buried in the church of B. Probus, as may be seen in the elogia of each in him: about the first, namely Proculus, he at least doubts, saying: There is a doubt in me whether he be laid in the basilica of B. Probus, or in that of saint Eleucadius the confessor.

[31] where there is a double Office of our Saint. These things about the finding and translation of the five bodies I have set out somewhat more fully, because, if perchance those were mistaken who, as the anonymous author relates, supposed that among the three first found was the body of St. Aderitus, then at least it could most likely be judged that it was one of the five afterwards found. For I do not read that other Saints or bishops were buried in the church of St. Probus down to Agnellus's times, except perhaps one, Peter the Elder, who was placed in a great stone coffer, but who, while Agnellus was writing — if only I rightly understand his words — had been translated elsewhere. The bodies of the said eight holy bishops rest, then, to this day beneath the high altar of the metropolitan church, and the festivity of each — except Proculus, as I intimated above — is celebrated yearly with an ecclesiastical Office of double rite. And the whole is prescribed to be taken from the Common of a confessor pontiff, except the 4th lesson, which each has proper, but which for our Saint I shall not copy out, both because it is not ancient and because it contains nothing which the reader cannot abundantly learn from this Commentary.