Leopardus

ON ST. LEOPARDUS, MARTYR AT ROME,

VENERATED AT AACHEN IN GERMANY.

Under Julian, as is reported.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

His memory in the sacred Calendars; his translation and cult at Aachen: fabulous Acts.

Leopardus, martyr of Rome, venerated at Aachen in Germany. (S.)

BY C. S.

Peter Galesinius in the Martyrology of the holy Roman Church announced St. Leopardus today at Aachen in Cis-Rhenane Germany in these words: [The Martyrology of Galesinius and the Roman one of Baronius announce him on this day,] At Aachen, of St. Leopardus the martyr, who by the command of the emperor Julian was first tormented for the glory of Christ with various punishments, and at last, a most valiant athlete of true and divine piety, having given up his neck, is crowned. The same Baronius retained in his Roman Martyrology, adding the city of Rome as the place of his contest; in which manner it is also read in the Martyrology of today, which, having been revised by Pope Benedict XIV, was reprinted some years ago. Take his words. On the same day, of St. Leopardus the martyr, of the household of Julian the apostate, whose head was cut off at Rome, and his body was translated to Aachen. Galesinius in his Annotations praises the Tables of Aachen and Molanus' Little Index of the Saints of Belgium; but Baronius praises the same Molanus in his Index and in his additions to the Martyrology of Usuard.

[2] In these Molanus, in our Sollerius among the Usuardine Supplements, has it thus at this day: Molanus and Grevenus in the Usuardine Supplements; On the same day, the festival of St. Leopardus the martyr; and presently in smaller type he adds: At Rome; now resting at Aachen. And in his Index of the Saints of Belgium he says this: St. Leopardus the martyr, chamberlain of the emperor Julian, by whom also after various torments he was beheaded at Rome; having been translated he rests at Aachen, which is an imperial town of the diocese of Liège. His feast falls on the thirtieth of September. He treats of him again at greater length in the Natales of Belgium, where from the Lessons of the church of Aachen, or Aix-la-Chapelle, he wove an elogium for him, which, since it has been drawn together from the Acts to be given below

I pass over. Galesinius therefore and Cardinal Baronius followed here as their first guide among the martyrologists Molanus, who wrote after the middle of the sixteenth century; I shall add some earlier ones. Grevenus in his Usuardine Martyrology, published in the year 1521, which Molanus indicates in his Preface that he used, had already commemorated the holy Martyr on this same day, saying: At Rome, of St. Leopardus the martyr, now resting at Aachen: which are almost the very words which I said were added by Molanus to his first announcement.

[3] In our manuscript Florarium of the Saints also, which is noted to have been brought to its end in the year 1486, [the Florarium, the Lübeck-Cologne edition, and the manuscript Martyrology of Bede,] there is read today: At Aachen, of holy Leopardus the martyr. Of the same age is the Usuardine Martyrology of the Lübeck-Cologne edition, made in the year 1490, which likewise has: On the same day, of holy Leopardus the martyr. Finally, much older than all these is the Martyrology of Bede, which, enlarged for the use of the imperial basilica of St. Mary the Virgin at Aachen and copied from a manuscript codex of that church, is extant in our Museum. It indeed bears no year; but since it has prefixed to it a Chronicle carried down from the Nativity of Christ to the year 1196, and in that Martyrology no Saint later than that time occurs, it is most likely that both were written about the end of the twelfth century. In this, at the aforesaid day, it is said thus: On the same day, the festivitais (read festivitas) of holy Leopardus the martyr. Now upon this we can observe three things.

[4] The first is that by the word festivity some particular feast is indicated, enlarged for the use of the basilica of Aachen. not merely the Saint's memory in the sacred Calendars, and that at Aachen, since St. Leopardus' body must be said to have rested even then in the basilica of Aachen, for whose use that Martyrology of Bede was enlarged. The second is that it remains doubtful whether the memory there indicates the day of his birth, that is, of his martyrdom, or of his translation or of any other solemnity: for the word festivity is ambiguous; and in other announcements of the same Martyrology Natale, deposition, passion, or some such little word are ordinarily read for the memory of martyrs. Thirdly and finally, it does not seem to be doubted that Molanus took the first part of his announcement, which alone he has in the earlier edition, from that very Martyrology; both because he also uses the word festivity, and because he attached to the announcement the letter P, by which he had given notice in the Preface num. X that those things are indicated to be drawn from the Martyrology of the proper church among the Belgians; that is, of that in which the holy body rests, or in which the Saint resided. And he reckoned the people of Aachen among the Belgians.

[5] He is venerated at Aachen, where his body is kept, That the body of St. Leopardus the martyr has for a long time been religiously kept in the aforesaid basilica at Aachen we learn also from elsewhere. His manuscript Passion, which I shall give, has thus at the end: But afterward he was translated to Aachen, where to this day his pious intercession is sought, and praise is recited to Christ by the voices of the faithful for the miracles of so glorious a Martyr, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, whose empire flourishes for ages of ages. Amen. Concerning the same sacred body resting there Peter à Beeck also agrees in his Aquisgranum chap. 9, John Noppius in the Chronicle of the same city book 1, chap. 2, and the little books or catalogues of the sacred relics which every seven years are wont to be publicly and solemnly shown to the faithful in that same imperial basilica, and among which the body of St. Leopardus is enumerated in the seventeenth place. The aforesaid Noppius writes moreover that his sacred bones were enclosed in a precious shrine together with the body of St. Charlemagne the emperor. I subjoin his words, turned from German into Latin.

[6] [which, however, does not seem to have been enclosed in the same shrine with the body of St. Charlemagne] After the canonization (of Charlemagne) had been performed, his sacred body, together with the bones of the noble Roman and martyr St. Leopardus, was placed by the aforesaid two bishops (of Cologne and of Liège) in a golden chest, which even today is kept at the altar of the choir, and on greater solemnities is set down to be viewed. So indeed he; but to me with little likelihood. This canonization, which he had said above took place in the year 1166, was the solemn elevation of Charlemagne's body, which the emperor Frederick I performed with the consent of his antipope Guido of Crema, called Paschal III, with Raynald archbishop of Cologne and Alexander bishop of Liège assisting, and with many princes of the empire: concerning which consult our Work vol. 2 of January in St. Charlemagne p. 888 and following, where also the diploma of the said emperor Frederick, given upon this matter, is indeed noted at the year 1166, but the elevation itself of the sacred body is said to have taken place in the preceding year.

[7] and to have been elevated at the same time. But no mention is here made of St. Leopardus; nor could I discover whence Noppius, who published his Chronicle in type at Cologne in the year 1632, learned that this Saint's bones were laid up together with the body of St. Charlemagne in one common reliquary and were wont to be so kept even in his own time. Certainly the catalogues of the relics praised above, published in various years before and after Noppius' Chronicle (whose credit is greater), teach the opposite, since they enumerate the body of St. Leopardus, and some even exhibit his reliquary engraved on copper without any added word about St. Charles' body being kept in the same shrine. For which reason I suspect that Noppius was here mistaken, and that what he had received about the relics of both Saints being kept at the same altar he interpreted also of the same chest. But the people of Aachen will be able to discern these things better. However that may be, from what has been said it cannot prudently be doubted that the body of St. Leopardus the martyr, or at least a notable part of it, has now for some centuries rested in the often-mentioned basilica at Aachen, and has always been in great honor, since among the more celebrated sacred relics it is wont every seven years to be exposed with great solemnity to public veneration.

[8] His body is said to have been translated from Otriculum in Umbria The place from which these remains of St. Leopardus were brought to Aachen the writer of his Passion assigns as Utricola, in which place he says that he was first buried immediately after his martyrdom, more than thirty miles distant from the city of Rome. Molanus has exactly the same in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, from the Lessons, as he says, of the church of Aachen itself. Utricola, or Otriculum, or as others write it, Ocriculum, was once an episcopal city, in place of which, when it was destroyed, another town of that name was afterward founded about a thousand paces thence, and is extant not far from the river Tiber, in Umbria and in the diocese of Narni, still called by the Italians Otricoli. In that town there once lay (and perhaps even in his own time) the body of some St. Leopardus the martyr, says Jacobilli in the Saints of Umbria, reported by our Henschen at the day XIV of May in SS. Victor and Corona p. 269, num. 2, where on his credit it is said that there is read on a parchment sheet: From the Tiberine church of St. Victor in the year of the Lord MCCCXVI the bodies of the holy martyrs Fulgentius, Elozymus, Nectarius, Leopardus and Corona were translated and rest beneath this altar. He adds that at that altar there is an inscription cut in marble: Here rest SS. Fulgentius, Lozymus, Nectarius, Leopardus and Corona, martyrs of Christ: which certainly favor the assertion just cited from the manuscript Acts and from Molanus.

[9] Concerning the time and author of the translation I have found nothing certain handed down, to Aachen, which is likely enough; except that that gift seems to be credited to St. Charlemagne; which opinion indeed is likely enough, because it is established that the basilica of Aachen was founded by this holy emperor, and enriched with revenue and furnishings and the relics of the Saints. Nevertheless, since this reason alone is not conclusive, another suspicion may be raised by what our Henschen, just praised, recalled on that same page 269 num. 3 from a manuscript of Utrecht concerning the bodies of SS. Victor and Corona translated from Otriculum to Aachen by the emperor Otto. This manuscript, as Henschen testifies, contains a Sermon on the martyrdom and translation of Victor and Corona from Utricolum to Aachen; and in it is read: Which (bodies of SS. Victor and Corona) the emperor Otto, having been crowned at Rome, brought to Aachen: where in the chapel of St. Mary built by Charlemagne they were laid beneath the several altars, and there, by the granting of God's grace, many miracles of healing were performed. These things, I say, may raise a suspicion for ascribing St. Leopardus' translation to the same Otto, especially because in the words given in the preceding number express mention is made of the relics of SS. Leopardus, Corona and others kept together at Otriculum, whence, according to what was said above, the body of St. Leopardus the martyr, of whom we treat, is believed to have been translated to Aachen.

[10] Perhaps I could bring forward something more certain on one side or the other, but concerning the time and author of the translation there is less certainty. if the Utrecht manuscript praised by Henschen, which I have sought in vain, had come into my hands. Moreover, whether the people of Aachen received their St. Leopardus' body from Charlemagne or from some Otto, the things cited at num. 8 are no hindrance, according to which St. Leopardus' body rested also at Otriculum in the early fourteenth century; nor likewise is it a hindrance that Jacobilli after vol. 3 of the Saints of Umbria p. XXXVIII enumerated it also among the bodies of Saints kept there in his own time; for what has often elsewhere been observed in our Work could also have happened here, that a notable part of the sacred body was called the body, and thus, one part of it being translated to Aachen, the other, which had remained at Otriculum, although perhaps far smaller, was called the body, as before. And let these things be said by me as conjectures; for Jacobilli makes that holy Leopardus, as though another than ours, the brother of St. Nectarius, likewise a martyr resting there together with him; on what monument this rests is quite unknown to me. Thus far concerning the relics and cult of St. Leopardus.

[11] His Acts, written by an author by no means ancient, His Acts we received from John Gamans, a priest of our Society, copied from an ancient manuscript book of the church of Blessed Mary at Aix, that is, at Aachen; and they are very like, but more lengthy than, the elogium which I noted at num. 2 that Molanus gave in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium from the lessons of that same imperial basilica. Their writer, since he mentions the translation made to the church of Aachen, is certainly not older than the ninth century, at whose beginning that church was dedicated, and indeed perhaps much younger, as he himself sufficiently suggests when he says at the end, as of a matter long past: But afterward (after the Saint's first burial at Otriculum) he was translated to Aachen, where to this day his pious intercession is sought, etc. Yet it could be doubted whether these things were not added to ancient Acts by a later writer, if the rest favored this suspicion; which they not only do not do, but they even

show the writer to be far removed in time also from the martyrdom of St. Leopardus.

[12] [labor under fables, while they say the Saint suffered at Rome, in Julian's presence,] And two things in these Acts especially make the writer's credit weak. The first is St. Leopardus' Roman place of contest, in the presence of the apostate emperor Julian; the other is the occasion on which he is said to have confessed Christ and suffered. As regards the first, he makes Julian to be staying at Rome, and that for no short time, but at the least for the space of four months; which is certainly contrary to the ancient and contemporary writers, none of whom has handed down that Julian was ever at Rome after he took the title of Augustus in Gaul; and from whose statements it is moreover established that he never returned from the East after the death of Constantius, before which he did not persecute the Christians. And so either the Saint's place of contest must be transferred to the East, into which Julian set out with hurried journeys immediately after the death of Constantius; and thus everything will fall to the ground which he relates about Leopardus' Roman dwelling, and about the instruction and baptism received there from a certain Valentinus, and about the burial at Otriculum; or in place of Julian some governor or prefect of Rome must be substituted, and what the same writer relates as done between Julian and Leopardus must be reckoned among fables.

[13] and while he demanded divine honors for himself, The other error, or more truly the invention, of this same writer is that he says Julian ordered all the nobles dwelling within Rome to offer him sacrifices, as if he were a god: and that he was wont to have a golden censer before him daily, so that all who approached to greet him might burn incense in it. But this no one of the ancients has handed down about Julian, nor would St. Gregory Nazianzen, his contemporary, in the Orations which he left written against him, have failed to reproach him with it, if he had come even to that madness. For Julian the apostate, both from this writer's and from other ancient authors' assertions, wished to be held a religious worshiper of the gods, not a god. Nay, that crafty man even feigned so great modesty that he would not suffer himself to be addressed even with the title of lord, which others of his predecessors, the Augusti, had allowed, as he himself writes in the Misopogon p. 66 of the edition made by the labor of Dionysius Petavius. Little therefore did our anonymous author know Julian's character, and far did he depart from the likely, when he brought him on the stage demanding divine honors for himself, and wished it to be believed that holy Leopardus was crowned with martyrdom because he had denied them to him.

[14] which is shown to be false in both respects. There could here be objected a passage from the aforesaid St. Gregory Nazianzen, who in Oration 3, which is against Julian, among the wicked arts which he writes that he used to lead Christians gradually and as it were unwittingly to the worship of idols, relates also this one. Julian, celebrating an anniversary feast, and about to bestow on each of his soldiers a donative according to custom, ordered gold and incense to be placed beside him, and fire near at hand; and he willed that each one, before they received the donatives, should, according to the ancient custom, as he pretended, wont to be observed at imperial largesses, burn incense; but in fact, that by this ceremony they might be accounted to have denied the Christian faith. So it is; these things Gregory there relates at greater length, as does Sozomen book 5, chap. 17; but both ascribe them not to Julian's vain ambition, but to his impious zeal in promoting the worship of empty gods.

[15] Yet because of the similarity of the deed I suspect that this very passage was our anonymous author's guiding light, Julian persecuted his own household, and that he so altered Nazianzen's whole narrative that what had happened in the East he said was done at Rome; that for soldiers he substituted all the nobles dwelling within Rome; and finally, that what had once been perfidiously attempted by Julian the apostate on the occasion mentioned, he invented that he did daily for the arrogating of divine honors to himself. These fables being rejected, let us see what can be admitted concerning St. Leopardus; for fables are wont to be mixed with true things. He says that he was chamberlain to Julian the apostate, and was slain for the faith of Christ. This suffers no difficulty, nor is it without example under Julian, who, when he had resolved gradually to abolish the Christian religion, attacked his own household first of all, as the aforesaid St. Gregory testifies, whose words are those which I subjoin. When he had taken this into his mind, … another stratagem of his was this, and the only cautious and circumspect one of all, though otherwise exceedingly impious, that he should take the beginning of his crime from his household and the body of his attendants (which is familiar to all persecutors).

[16] For he knew that it could not be that he should attack outsiders, among whom perhaps was St. Leopardus, and he suffered in the East; unless these were first won over and joined to him, just as neither can one lead an army against enemies when it strives with and dissents from its commander. And for this reason he changes the whole court, some being first withdrawn by death and taken out of the midst, others removed and expelled; not so much because they had been well disposed toward the great emperor (Constantius), as because they were affected with a greater good will toward a greater emperor (Christ). Of these therefore St. Leopardus the chamberlain could be believed to have been one, were it not said that he suffered at Rome, at which time Julian, whose chamberlain he was, was staying with all his court in the East. But on the contrary, if he suffered in the East, in what manner did Valentinus (as is read in the same Passion), dwelling near Rome, bury his body immediately after the martyrdom at Otriculum in Umbria, whence it is believed to have been translated to Aachen? Not to detain the reader longer, one of two things must be determined; namely, either that St. Leopardus suffered in the East, or that, if he suffered at Rome, everything which the anonymous author puts forth about his dealings with Julian is fabulous.

[17] The latter appears to me more probable for the reasons which I propose to the reader to weigh. but more likely at Rome, in Julian's absence, First, our anonymous author could be much better informed about the place from which the people of Aachen received St. Leopardus' relics than about his deeds so many centuries earlier: and if those relics were received from Otriculum, it is more likely that the Saint suffered at Rome than in the East; since nothing is known of a translation made hence to Otriculum. Secondly, in this way the holy Martyr's Roman place of contest can easily be reconciled with the burial at Otriculum. Thirdly, according to what was cited at num. 8 and 10, there was at Otriculum the body of some St. Leopardus the martyr, or at least relics, of which a great or even the greater part could have been translated to Aachen. Fourthly and finally, this too is common enough in the Acts of other martyrs of a later stamp, that emperors, under whom they suffered, are brought in as if present, though it is established that they were then far away from the place.

[18] under a gentile prefect That this very thing has place also in Julian's persecution Cardinal Baronius observed, who in the Annotations to the Roman Martyrology at the day X of May, in St. Gordian, who likewise suffered under him, says: We warn the reader again that those butcheries which are said to have been wont to be practiced at Rome against the Christians in the times of Julian were instituted not by Julian himself, but by Apronianus prefect of the City, etc. Nay, such was Julian's craftiness that, in order to be held a prince of gentle mind, he compelled the Christians to idolatry by no published law, and said he did not wish them to be compelled; but meanwhile he gave the peoples such prefects and governors as well knew that they could render him nothing more pleasing than if they persecuted them in every way most cruelly; as the aforesaid St. Gregory has testified in more than one place. Our anonymous author therefore will have read that St. Leopardus, whose body the people of Aachen had received from Otriculum, suffered at Rome under Julian the apostate, and wrongly interpreting this of the emperor's presence, will have unhappily added his own conjectures and put them forth as facts.

[19] the martyr fell. For the rest, Tillemont in vol. 7 of the Monuments of the Church, in the persecution of Julian the apostate, art. XI, observes that during his reign three men held the prefecture of the city of Rome: Tertullus, Maximus and Apronianus, all pagans. Finally, if St. Leopardus really suffered under Julian, his martyrdom must be placed between the death of the emperor Constantius, which happened in the month of November of the year 361, and the slaying of Julian, by which in the month of June of the year 363 he paid the penalties of his impiety. Now I subjoin the Acts; which, although they are fabulous or at least sprinkled with fables, yet because they are neither lengthy nor, so far as I know, published elsewhere in print, I have judged should be given, so that the learned reader may himself the more easily pass his own judgment upon them.

FABULOUS ACTS

By an anonymous author

From a manuscript codex of the church of Blessed Mary at Aachen.

Leopardus, martyr of Rome, venerated at Aachen in Germany. (S.)

BHL Number: 4888

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

Nobly born at Rome, by Julian the apostate In the times of Julian the apostate ^a there was a certain man of great nobility within the city of Rome, whose name was Leopardus, who also dwelt in the house of Aquilina ^b, the only son of his father. And when the said Boy had come to his age, he is sent by his father to learn the seven liberal arts. And the aforenamed apostate was making his way past the house of Aquilina, and looking up, he saw a Boy wonderful in form of body, but fairer in mind; with curly hair, broad shoulder, slender belly, eyes dark after the Roman manner, arms also strong, cheeks growing downy, a lively countenance and middling stature ^c. And when the aforenamed apostate had returned to the palace, he sent a certain young man by name Gallus, that his father, being commanded by imperial order, should present him to him, because he had resolved to have the service of so fine a Youth: and the father, rejoicing, gladly sent him to the palace.

[2] And Julian, seeing him, said to the consuls standing about: he is taken as chamberlain, but by Valentinus Oh how fitting it is that such a one should serve so great a one. And so, as the Boy remained with him for the space of four months, he pleased him so greatly that he was called by him the beloved Chamberlain; and by all the Romans he was called fairer than the emperor. And the master to whom he had been sent for his studies dwelt above the Tiber beside the Milvian bridge ^d, and was by name called Valentinus: for he discharged the honor of the high priesthood ^e, a distinguished man and one fearing God. Then Leopardus' master, hearing that he flourished in so great an honor of dignity, coming to him by night, addresses him in these words. Oh what a dignity is this of the present age, but how much greater that of the age to come! The one, namely, is visible and changeable; but the one to come is without doubt delightful beyond the understanding of man. I know that you hold a magistracy in the palace of this vanity of the present age, and that you greatly love the glory of a deceitful age; and therefore, most beloved Son, I diligently admonish you to consider the destruction of your predecessors, and with what and how great an honor they were endowed while some of them tarried in the senatorial order, and how they have been reduced to dust. And what more? To that which they now are you shall return, and you shall leave all the glory of this world against your will.

[3] And so, sweet solace of labors, better for you

it is, instructed in the faith and baptized, that, being renewed by the anointing of the sacred chrism and by the water of baptism, you may without doubt after the life of this age come to the glory of the eternal inheritance. The Boy therefore was astounded at his master's admonitions, and again collecting his mind, with a willing voice he answered: Your admonition is salutary, holy father, as before, when I often studied with you in the schools, you related to me and to my fellow-students many and great miracles concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And him whom you preach, Jesus Christ, I believe and confess, and in his name I wish to be baptized, and even if I must die, I will not deny him. The master, filled with no small joy, taking him by the hand, led him to the baths of Diocletian, and stripping him of his garments, baptized him in the font which is called Palatine, under the name of Jesus Christ. And that font is beneath the baths of Diocletian, with an aqueduct leading as far as the chrysotriclinium, which is called the Golden house.

[4] And so on the seventh day the emperor after his usual manner ordered all the nobles and refusing to burn incense to Julian, dwelling within Rome to offer him sacrifices, as if he were a god. For such was his custom, that a golden censer should stand before him daily, and that all who came to him to greet him should in order offer incense to his praise ^f. Then it happened on a certain day that this young Leopardus, coming before him, was unwilling to cast in the compound of incense: and Cæsar, making a sign to him to come to him, and whispering in his ear, says: You have delivered your custom to oblivion, not offering me the odor of incense. But he, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, brought forth an open confession: I am a Christian, and I confess Christ, and him alone I adore. I wish therefore to render to God the things that are God's, but to you, Cæsar, the things that are yours. And Cæsar leaned upon his hand and groaned deeply, saying to Leopardus: Oh how you must lose our familiarity, and I the comeliness of your beauty! But if a sacrifice is not offered me by you quickly, death is without doubt being prepared for you.

[5] after scourging he is beheaded, buried, and translated to Aachen. But he, speaking boldly in reply, brought forth this discourse: The Lord says in the Gospel: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Neither do I fear your threats, Cæsar, nor for your sake do I forsake God. Cæsar, seized with fury, ordered him to be given to the executioners, that, having beaten him with scourges, they might if they could make him cease from his belief. But seeing that they profited nothing, they returned and reported to Cæsar: and Julian, being moved, ordered him to be beheaded outside the walls. And the Athlete of Christ was beheaded on the day before the Kalends of October under Julian the apostate ^g. Word was therefore brought to Valentinus of his good contest; who, coming with joy and gathering his body with spices and precious linens, carried him more than thirty miles into the place which is called Utricola ^h: for he did not dare to bury him at Rome for fear of Cæsar. But afterward he was translated to Aachen ⁱ, where to this day his pious intercession is sought, and praise is recited to Christ by the voices of the faithful for the miracles of so glorious a Martyr, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, whose empire flourishes for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.