Fulgentius

ON ST. FULGENTIUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT ATINA IN CAMPANIA

In the first or second century

SYLLOGE.

Fulgentius, bishop and confessor, at Atina in Campania. (S.)

BY J. P.

This bishop, even though he is reported to have flourished in the first or second century, I find enrolled in no more general Calendars, His memory in the Calendars of more recent writers, except the Catalogues of Philippus Ferrarius; whence probably he passed at last into the general Martyrology of Castellanus at the twenty-ninth day of September. And Ferrarius indeed at the beginning of his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy places him in the topographical index among the Saints who are venerated at Atina in Latium, as follows: Fulgentius bishop and confessor, September 29; and again in the alphabetical index: Fulgentius bishop of Atina, September 29; where he at the same time indicates that his body is in the church of St. Peter: yet in the Catalogue itself, at the designated day, he does not even set forth the Saint's name, much less, as he commonly does, weave an elogium or supply indications of a cult. This defect he supplied to some extent in the other Catalogue, namely the general one of the Saints who have no place in the Roman Martyrology, announcing Fulgentius on that very day thus: At Atina in Latium, St. Fulgentius the bishop. But in the Annotations he cites the records of the church of Atina, and, he says, he is handed down to have been the successor of St. Mark, the first bishop of that city; and finally he notes that Paulus Florius of Urbino treats of Fulgentius in his little book on the holy Protectors of Atina, printed at Rome in the year 1599.

[2] Likewise our bishop is marked with the title of Saint by Ferdinando Ughelli in the Italia sacra volume 6 of the second edition column 418; and in some published Works: by Francesco Orlendi in the Orbis sacer et profanus volume 3 of part 2 page 1593, and by the aforesaid Paulus Florius. Ughelli has as follows: St. Fulgentius after St. Mark obtained the church of Atina, having been ordained bishop by St. Clement the Pope in the year of salvation 95. He sat 13 years, 7 months, 28 days. He fell asleep in the Lord in the year of Christ 109, and was laid to rest beside the church of holy Peter the apostle. To these things he adds some matters from the Chronicle of the church of Atina, from which he had given notice beforehand that he would give the series of bishops; which nevertheless (they are Ughelli's own words) so inverts the ordination of the bishops and the dates that scarcely, when corrected, does it seem able to turn out tolerable. The aforesaid Chronicle is extant in the same author at the end of the first volume of the first edition, and in the tenth volume of the second edition among the Anecdota column 37, and it bears this title: A brief Chronicle of the church of Atina, by two anonymous authors of Atina, from a very ancient manuscript codex of the monastery of Fossanova, from the first year of Julius Caesar down to the year of our salvation 1355.

[3] Now the said two anonymous Chroniclers place the martyrdom of St. Mark, bishop of Atina, in the time of the emperor Domitian, and, being about to relate the things that afterwards happened worthy of record, they begin thus: The Acts from the Chronicle Clement presided over the Roman Church nine years, two months, ten days. He in the second year of his Pontificate ordained Fulgentius bishop in the city of Atina, who sat 31 years, 7 months, 28 days. He buried the bodies of SS. Nicander and Mark [*] beside the body of Mark the martyr of Christ, building for himself a small dwelling. It was his care also to lay away more carefully the body of blessed Mark the martyr, and to place the head separately from the body. And he died on the third of the Kalends of October, and was laid beside the church of blessed Peter the apostle. Thus far the Chroniclers, whom Ughelli corrected in the words cited above, putting only thirteen years for the duration of St. Fulgentius's see instead of thirty-one. But whether he thus dissolved every difficulty we shall see, after we have reported the other documents pertaining to this matter.

[4] and from the Catalogue of the bishops of Atina Bonifacio Taulero of the Order of Minors of the Observance published at Naples in the year 1702 a History of the city of Atina, and inserted in it an ancient Catalogue of the bishops, which he records to be still preserved in the church of Atina, and which M. Antonio Palumbo corrected with learned animadversions; as Nicolò Coleti, the continuator of Ughelli's Work, informs us in volume 10 column 19, where he transcribes the Catalogue, although he confesses it mutilated and teeming with many errors, together with the said animadversions. Of St. Fulgentius these things are read: In the reign of Domitian Caesar, in the year 102 from that in which the Son of man suffered for us on the gibbet of the holy Cross, in the second persecution, Pope Clement in the second year of his Pontificate ordained Fulgentius bishop in the city of Atina. He sat in the episcopate 31 years, 7 months, 28 days. It was his care to lay away more carefully the body of blessed Mark the martyr and bishop of the aforesaid city, and to place the head separately from the body. He also buried the bodies of SS. Nicander and Martian, and of Passicrates too and Daria, beside the body of Mark the martyr of Christ, building there a very small dwelling. Which martyrs, at the bidding of the cruel governor Maximus, obtained the palm of martyrdom, fighting manfully, on the fifteenth of the Kalends of July. The aforesaid bishop, receiving his falling asleep in the Lord, was buried beside the church of blessed Peter the apostle, which had before been a temple of Jupiter, on the third of the Kalends of October.

[5] The studious reader need not be warned that these things do not differ from those which I have given from the Chronicle, collected except that they are a little fuller, and, as Coleti observes generally of the whole Catalogue, also more faulty. But I judged that both these and those should be recited, so that it might presently be clear whence Florius drew his materials in the little book which was published in Italian under this title: Lives and martyrdoms of the glorious holy Protectors of Atina, collected by Pietro Paolo Florio of Urbino. From it there are preserved in our manuscript collectanea (for we do not have a printed copy) some transcribed Lives of Saints, and namely the Life of blessed Fulgentius, bishop and protector of Atina, which, rendered into Latin from the Italian, I transfer here: While Domitian held the Roman empire, blessed Clement the Supreme Pontiff in the second year of his Pontificate ordained as bishop of Atina Fulgentius, a most holy man, outstanding in piety and learning, and so kindled with love of the illustrious deeds of the glorious martyrs that he spared no labor, zeal, or diligence in promoting their honor and cult: whereby the faithful, oppressed by the most grievous persecutions of the tyrants, might be heartened, and might have examples to which to look, and might implore heavenly patronage.

[6] And so that most holy Man with all humility and piety gave honorable burial to the bodies of the glorious saints Nicander, are set forth; Marcian, Pasicrates, and Daria, building a very small chapel near the relics of blessed Mark. Then that most holy Bishop, devoting himself to prayer, to fasting, and to pastoral watchfulness, rendered his soul to his Lord on the twenty-ninth day of September, having occupied the episcopal see of Atina for thirty-one years, seven months, and twenty-two days. He was buried beside the church of St. Peter the apostle, consecrated by blessed Mark; where a temple of Jupiter had stood before.

[7] Let us now see whether the things cited from the Chronicle, from the Catalogue, and from Florius can be reconciled with historical and chronological truth, but they are examined and with one another and with themselves. In this they agree, that they say Fulgentius was ordained bishop by St. Clement in the second year of his Pontificate. But so far we can establish nothing certain from that: since, as is well enough known, the opinions about the order of succession and the beginnings of the first Roman Pontiffs are so various that, however much the learned have labored, no one so far has made his own so certain as to remove all difficulties. It will suffice here to note that the beginning of St. Clement is fixed by some at the year of Christ 67, by others at 91 or a little later, and that the aforesaid documents of the people of Atina come nearer to this latter opinion.

[8] And the Chronicle indeed comes near to this, when it notes that Mark, sprinkled with so many errors the predecessor of Fulgentius, continued in the bishopric of Atina until the times of Domitian; and the Catalogue and Florius, when they add that Fulgentius was ordained by Clement while Domitian was reigning or holding the empire. For he began to reign in the year 81 and ceased in 96. Another chronological note tending the same way the authors of the Chronicle add, where they affirm that St. Mark suffered in the sixty-third year after the Lord's Passion, which was, according to some, the year 92 of the common era, according to others 97. But the author of the Catalogue absurdly disfigured all the reckonings, when he expressed the year of St. Fulgentius's ordination, omitted in the Chronicle, thus: In the reign of Domitian Caesar, in the year 102 from that in which the Son of man suffered for us on the gibbet of the holy Cross, in the second persecution, Pope Clement in the second year of his Pontificate ordained… Fulgentius bishop. For who would join the year 102, even if taken from the Nativity of Christ, with the reign of Domitian; with the second persecution, which ceased at Domitian's death; with the second year of Clement? Wherefore Palumbo in the animadversions praised above says: This passage, according to the reckoning of the author whom I follow (I do not know whom he means; perhaps Taulero, mentioned at number 4), is to be restored thus: "In the year 61 from that in which the Son of man suffered for us on the gibbet of the holy Cross." For Clement was created supreme Pontiff in the year of the Lord 93, and in the year 95 ordained Fulgentius bishop, from which if you subtract 34 years, there remain 61 years.

[9] are found, I confess that by that correction this passage is somehow brought back to the reckonings of the Chronicle, and to the opinion of those who join the beginnings of Pope Clement with the reign of Domitian and the second persecution. But other things present themselves to be corrected in the Chronicle and Catalogue: in both places the duration of St. Fulgentius's see is extended to thirty-one years, and some months and days: and accordingly, since according to the reckonings of the Chronicle Fulgentius was not ordained before the sixty-third year after the Lord's Passion, that is, 92 or 97 of the common era, the end of his episcopate cannot be placed before 123 or 128. Let us hear meanwhile what is asserted in both places about Hilary, St. Fulgentius's next successor. In the Chronicle: Nerva reigned 1 year, 4 months… Anacletus presided over the Roman Church 12 years, 1 month, 11 days. In the last year of his Pontificate he ordained Hilary bishop in the city of Atina, etc. In the Catalogue: In the reign of Nerva, in the year 101 from that in which the Light dispelled the darkness, and in the second persecution, Pope Anacletus in the last year of his Pontificate ordained Hilary bishop in the city of Atina, etc.

[10] so that, whatever correction be applied, Of St. Anacletus it was treated in our Work in volume III of the month of July at the thirteenth day, and his death, without discussion of a controversy perhaps never to be clearly settled, was fixed at the year of Christ 95, which is the opinion of Henschen, Papebroch, both the Pagis, and others, but with which, as is clear, the chronological order of the documents of Atina cannot stand. Let us have recourse therefore to the opinion of those who have judged that Anacletus's death should be placed later. Among them the best known are Baronius, Labbe, and Ughelli, yet none of them, or any other whom I know, prolongs Anacletus's life beyond the year 112, and accordingly not even in that opinion can the chronology of the people of Atina be saved. Ughelli and Palumbo tried to loose the knot by reducing the number of years for which St. Fulgentius is said to have sat: and he indeed in the series of the bishops of Atina puts only 13 for 31, as I hinted above; but this one 16, to which each adds the months and days assigned in the Chronicle and Catalogue; and thus in the year of Christ 95, which according to Ughelli and Palumbo was the second of Pope Clement, Fulgentius was ordained bishop, and sat until the year 109 in Ughelli's opinion, or until III in Palumbo's opinion.

[11] things scarcely tolerable But not even thus do the remaining chronological notes of our instruments become plain. For, to pass over that in the Catalogue Hilary is said to have been made bishop of Atina in the one hundred and first year in which the Light dispelled the darkness, in the Chronicle the series of events is set forth as though Hilary had come to the see of Atina in the reign of Nerva and in the second persecution, and this is asserted in express words in the catalogue: whereas nevertheless the second persecution ceased at Domitian's death, that is, according to the most received opinion, in the year of Christ 96, but Nerva, Domitian's immediate successor, held the empire only fourteen months. Wherefore, in order that the often-mentioned instruments may be brought back to the reckonings of Ughelli and Palumbo, the third persecution must be substituted for the second, and the emperor Trajan must be substituted for Nerva. Nor will there be an end here of things to be corrected. In the Chronicle the bodies of SS. Nicander and Marcian the martyrs are said to have been buried by St. Fulgentius; in the Catalogue and in the Life compiled by Florius the bodies of SS. Daria and Pasicrates are added, which cannot be true unless Fulgentius prolonged his life beyond the year 173, before which those Saints were not put to martyrdom, as Henschen and Papebroch showed from their more ancient Passion in volume III of June at the seventeenth day.

[12] Nay, according to others Fulgentius would have had to live even to the fourth century: for Tillemont in volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments and our Janning in part 1 of volume 6 of the same month of June, in the Appendix to the said seventeenth day, contend with many arguments can be made. that the martyrdom of SS. Nicander and his Companions must be deferred to the year 302. Now from what has thus far been discussed it is abundantly clear that what Ughelli pronounced specifically of the Chronicle can truly be applied to what the documents of Atina assert about our Saint: namely, that everything is so inverted that scarcely, when corrected, can it be made tolerable. Hence I have doubtfully fixed his very death in the first or second century. About his present-day cult too the people of Atina or others teach us nothing definite; that he is nevertheless honored with some particular cult the title of Protector of Atina, which Florius ascribes to him, allows us to conjecture, and the Prayer which the same author appends to the Life recited above: Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the festival of blessed Fulgentius your confessor and bishop, etc., as in the Roman Breviary from the Common of a confessor bishop.

* read Marciani