Grimoald

ON ST. GRIMOALD, PRIEST AND CONFESSOR,

AT PONTECORVO IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES

After the year 1137.

SYLLOGE

On his cult, deeds and date.

Grimoald, priest and confessor, at Pontecorvo in the kingdom of Naples. (S.)

BY C. S.

Pons-curvus, by others Pons-corvus, called by the Italians Ponte-corvo, formerly a little town of Italy in the present kingdom of Naples and in the province of Terra di Lavoro, Notice of Pontecorvo, where today where it adjoins Roman Campania, on the river Liris, commonly il Garigliano, but under the Pontifical dominion, of the diocese of Aquino, is now an episcopal city, over which the same bishop presides as over Aquino. There are those who suppose that the ancient city of Fregellæ stood in the same place, among whom Philip Ferrari in the Topography to the Roman Martyrology says this about its situation: "Pons Curvus, formerly called Fregellæ, Ponte Corvo, a town of Latium beside the river Liris, standing as it were midway between Frusino and Minturnæ, twenty miles distant from each; also between Aquinum and Formiæ, of the diocese of Aquino." Orlendi in his Orbis sacer et profanus, part 2, vol. 3, treating of the bishopric of Aquino, writes that the bishop of that see was accustomed to reside in that town after Aquinum was destroyed, and at the same time informs us of its new splendour.

[2] "The chief town of the diocese (of Aquino)," he says, "is Ponte Corvo, he is announced by Baronius of the Pontifical dominion, where there is a distinguished collegiate church and a seminary of clerics. In this same town the bishop (of Aquino) is wont to reside and to perform pontifical functions." Then, some matters being interposed about the ancient city of Fregellæ, he adds: "Out of its ruins there afterward arose Ponte Corvo, a noble town of Latium, which at length lately the supreme Pontiff Benedict XIII, having endowed it with the right of a city and with an episcopal chair, united to Aquino in the year 1725; yet so that the same man be called bishop both of Aquino and of Ponte Corvo." Now in this town, now a city, there is venerated on this 29th day of September St. Grimoald, a priest of that same place, whom Cardinal Baronius, citing in his Notes the ancient records of the church of Aquino which he had received, was the first to inscribe in the Roman Martyrology in these words: "At Pontecorvo near Aquino, of St. Grimoald, priest and confessor."

[3] and by Ferrari, and St. Grimoald is venerated. Following Baronius, Philip Ferrari announced him in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, out of the manuscript records of the same church of Aquino, with the following eulogy: "Grimoald the priest was an Englishman by nation. He, together with Fulcus and Eleutherius his brothers, having undertaken a long pilgrimage, in which he visited for devotion's sake the holy places at Rome and elsewhere, came at length with his brothers into Latium, or to the borders of Latium and Campania, near Aquino. But Fulcus dying at Ceprano and Eleutherius at Arcanum, towns of Latium, he himself stayed at Fregellæ, which at this time is called Pons Curvus, and there, some miracles having been wrought by which his sanctity became known, he passed out of life on the third of the Kalends of October, and was buried in the greater church. His feast day is kept on this day with great solemnity." Him, and at the same time those two believed to be his brothers, Nicolas Braut celebrates at this day in his metrical Martyrology, singing thus:

Three Brothers, setting forth abroad in seeking their fatherland, Out of Latium seek the blessed roofs of their fatherland.

Yet do not gather from this that these three saints are venerated on this same day and in this same place: for they are venerated on different days, as we shall say, and Braut himself recorded them at those different days.

[4] We do not know his Acts, The deeds of St. Grimoald, or at least his miracles, a certain bishop of Aquino briefly wrote down, who calls his predecessor Guarinus, to whom Peter the deacon of Monte Cassino is said to have dedicated the Life of St. Constantius, bishop of the same see, about the year 1125, in Ughelli, vol. 1 of the enlarged Italia sacra, col. 396. There indeed follows in that place, as the next successor of Guarinus, Reginald; but since mention of him is found only from the year 1179 to 1192, one or two might easily have dropped out of the series of the bishops of Aquino. It is also possible that the aforesaid anonymous writer was later than Reginald; since he does not explain whether Guarinus was his own immediate predecessor. However that may be, that bishop of unknown name, cited by our Papebroch at the 24th day of June in St. John the Baptist, p. 801, expressly asserts, in the words to be given at no. 7, that he had written a small book about St. Grimoald; whether it still survives I cannot say. For Papebroch there, at p. 799, no. 455, wished for it against this day, and yet I do not find it in our Museum. Wherefore, if it still anywhere survives, we beg again and again that it be communicated to us, to be published in the Supplement of this month of September.

[5] Meanwhile we shall give those few things which the aforesaid bishop recorded of Grimoald upon quite another occasion, besides a few things by a certain bishop of Aquino namely while treating of a certain apparition of St. John the Baptist and of a church erected to that same holy forerunner of Christ; from which we shall be informed both of his date, and of the place where he lived, and of his office, and of his sanctity proved by miracles even after his death. These things the aforesaid Papebroch published at the aforesaid day of June from p. 800, having received them from an old Legendary of Montecorvo, written in Lombardic letters. That author, a bishop of Aquino, therefore relates that a certain countryman, a simple man named John Mel, when, enticed by promises, he was in peril of his life from a demon, was freed by St. John the Baptist appearing to him, and received these commands: "Go in haste to Grimuald the archpriest of Pontecorvo, and exhort him to exercise himself * in the three works which he has begun; in which, if he strive to persevere, by the gifts of the heavenly Giver he shall receive the crown of life with the Elect.

[6] And let him so strive, and so exhort the people, that in this place a house be built to my name, written upon another occasion, from which we learn in which the vows of the faithful may be paid, and in which my Lord Christ may with His accustomed kindness confer healing upon the languors of bodies and of souls." Having said these things, he vanished into thin air and departed. After other matters not pertaining hither, the author adds that John Mel did not dare to do what was commanded, fearing lest he be charged with imposture; until he was sharply rebuked by another man sent by the same holy Baptist. For, when he had heard these things, that John exulted with incredible gladness, … and, taking the man by the hand, with cheerful face and swift step they go together to the Archpriest, and, telling him all in order as it had been commanded, faithfully set it forth to him.

[7] But he, being as he was mild, kindly, simple and gentle, that he was archpriest of Pontecorvo, gave ear; and, yielding full faith to the injunctions laid upon him, bound to his breast whatever had been enjoined him by Bl. John, and with great spirit and pure heart strove wholeheartedly to fulfil it. For in the three works to which Bl. John wished him to be encouraged, namely fasting, prayer and almsgiving, he exercised himself so devoutly, and so praiseworthily formed himself, that in the seventh year after he laid down the mass of the flesh the Lord deigned to work through him very many things, which we have summarily touched upon in a small book, to be left to the memory of posterity. But in the admonishing of the people and in his zeal for building the church he showed himself so ready and so practised, that in his exhortation to the doing of such a work he might be reckoned a Bezaleel or an Oholiab.

[8] The people therefore, enticed by his admonitions, terrified by his threats, stirred by his discourse, with equal spirit and concordant will, and that he was still alive in the year 1137. run together with one accord, and in the year of the Lord 1137, with the episcopal blessing and the laying of the stone by lord Guarinus, of blessed memory, bishop of Aquino, our predecessor … near the place where the aforesaid apparition was shown from heaven, the church which is seen erected today is built full of devotion, &c. These are the more certain things which we have concerning St. Grimoald, as being handed down by a bishop of Aquino, in whose diocese Pontecorvo lay, and who is gathered to have lived not long after the Saint's own times from the Lombardic characters in which the Legendary, whence this narration was taken, is said to have been written. St. Grimoald was therefore an archpriest, whether that word be taken in the proper sense, or for a rural dean, as they call it. He flourished, from what has been said, in the twelfth century, up to the year 1137; how long a time he survived that year is quite unknown to me; and therefore I have fixed his death after the aforesaid year 1137.

[9] It is not so certain whether he was an Englishman by nation, Less certain are the things which Ferrari above asserted about his country, his pilgrimage and his brothers, SS. Fulcus and Eleutherius. St. Fulcus is venerated on the 22nd day of May in the town of San Padre of the diocese of Aquino, at which day Papebroch printed his Acts, obtained from a priest of San Padre. In these St. Fulcus is said to have set out from England first to Jerusalem for religion's sake, and, returning thence after visiting the holy places of Apulia, to have ministered in a hospice near the town of San Padre, and to have died in holiness; but no mention is made of Brothers or companions. In the same diocese of Aquino, in the town of Arcanum, commonly Arce, St. Eleutherius is venerated on the 29th day of May, at which Henschen treated of him briefly out of the Roman Martyrology and Ferrari. Further, from the Roman Martyrology we have nothing for England as his country or for the aforesaid brotherhood: for at the 22nd of May only this is read there: "Near Aquino, of St. Fulcus, confessor"; at the 29th of the same month thus: "At Arcanum in Latium, of St. Eleutherius, confessor"; and lastly at the present day of September: "At Pontecorvo near Aquino, of St. Grimoald, priest and confessor."

[10] and the brother of SS. Fulcus and Eleutherius. Philip Ferrari in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, at the aforesaid days of the month of May, confesses that he had sought in vain, even from the bishop of Aquino himself, the Acts of SS. Fulcus and Eleutherius; and nevertheless he asserts that they were brothers of St. Grimoald and had set out from England to Rome, citing in the first place the ancient tradition of the men of Ceprano, and in the second place the records of the church of Aquino; but since in the same place he says in an Annotation: "We have not yet seen the proper Acts of St. Eleutherius; although we have more than once demanded them of the bishop of Aquino, yet through others. But what we have said we have received from the report of the inhabitants" — since, I say, Ferrari says these things, it may be doubted whether he took the country and the brotherhood of the Saints from the aforesaid records of Aquino, or only from the report of the inhabitants. And so these things are to me quite doubtful, yet less so the English country; for to what end should the men of Aquino or the inhabitants of Pontecorvo have feigned St. Grimoald a stranger, since popular affection is rather wont to make natives even out of foreigners?

Perhaps se*