ON THE HOLY AFRICAN BISHOPS, FLORENTIUS AND VINDEMIALIS, AT TREVISO IN ITALY.
ABOUT A. D.
Summary. On their Episcopates, the time of flight or exile, & cult.
Florentius, an African Bishop, at Treviso in Italy (S.)
Vindemialis, an African Bishop, at Treviso in Italy (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[1] The Trevisan dominion under the Venetian Republic, to the Taurisaes seems to have ascribed Pliny; in whose Metropolis of its own name the Cathedral church, The Day from Ferrarius. dedicated to S. John the Baptist, with several Relics of Saints is enriched, which in a not inelegant Poem enumerates Bartholomew Burchelati, as can be read in the Sacred Italy of Ferdinand Ughelli vol. 5 col. 466. There among others are called, that to the city beloved by them they may be present,
Vindemialis likewise, Florentius & Chilianus.
About Chilianus, who he is, & when to be venerated, I desire to be taught by the Trevisans. To the other two this ninth day of June he assigns in his alphabetical Index to the Catalogue of Saints of Italy Philip Ferrarius; with the addition that their bodies are held in the Cathedral church; but about them throughout the whole book nowhere does he treat, whether on account of waiting for further notice, or through oblivion. We rejoice at least to know the day, & to this notice we add the words of Ughelli, on the same in the Trevisan Bishops thus writing:
[2] The third Bishop of the city, Titianus, flourished about the year CCCC of our salvation: Cult from Ughelli is proved in whose times from Africa to Treviso came the holy Bishops and Confessors Florentius and Vindemialis, who were present at the Carthaginian Council against the Arians; & there at Treviso most holily defunct at S. John the Baptist Bishop Titianus buried them, near the Cathedral, with a marble urn covering, where it is written read; The Relics of the holy Confessors and Bishops Florentius and Vindemialis. That urn now within the church is held, translated thither by Bishop Rothari about the year MXX, writes the praised Ughelli, perhaps from the Trevisan History of John Bonifacius book 1 p. 37; where this one says, their sepulcher is within a chapel dedicated to them and recently elegantly adorned in memory, by the munificence of Bonacursus Bombene, Canon and Noble of Treviso: but in the exterior now of the church of S. John the Baptist there persevere of the same Saints anciently sculpted effigies in the living rock: which if I should obtain delineated some time, I shall take care to have engraved on bronze.
[3] & by Victor of Vita the time of persecution Victor of Vita (as it pleases Chiffletius the editor of his works) not of Utica, Bishop, book 4 on the persecution of Africa, brings forth the Names of the Catholic Bishops of the diverse Provinces, who to Carthage from the Royal command came for rendering account of faith, on the day of the Kalends of February, in the year VIII of King Hunericus. Year VI reads Sirmundus in the notice of Episcopates of Africa, & from him Labbé vol. 4 of the Councils, and following him Schelstratius: but if in the year of Christ CCCCLXXVI Hunneric began to reign, as Labbé wishes in the Chronological Epitome; certainly he contradicts himself, since he defers the persecution stirred up by him to CCCCLXXXIV: for this according to him was the VIII year of Hunneric: but if also earlier he is brought into the kingdom, the year also must be anticipated. There among the names of the Bishops of the Proconsular Province, whose Head is Carthage itself, or who into exile were sent, & the name of the church: occur two Florentii, of Utica and Semina, both relegated to Corsica. But among the Bishops of the Byzacene Province, is held Vindemialis of Capsa: to whom although nothing is ascribed, yet credible it is, that this one too, as also several others, was from the number of those who in the persecution itself did not perish, but remained CCCLXXVIII, of whom XLVI were relegated to Corsica.
[4] Tatianus either did not receive and bury them, From those however either relegated or voluntary fugitives very many crossed into Italy, & there holily died, are venerated on various days: nor does any more apt time occur, than the persecution of Hunneric, to which the Trevisans of those foreigners' either flight or exile we should refer. For about the year CCCC, in which Titianus Ughelli asserts to have lived, no such occasion does Africa offer, & I would say he wished to write 500, not 400, if the Chronology of the other Bishops did not proceed similarly, but confirmed by no authorities; wherefore I shall fear nothing to place Titianus himself (if so he was really named, who received the African newcomers, & buried them) after Jucundus and Helviandus, nor however shall I dare to number him Fifth. For who would not see that between John, who is said to be the first for the year CCCXX, or sat about the year, not 400, but 500: until Felix, who administered the same Church in the year DLXVIII, more than four Bishops have come in between? & moreover between Helviandus, who in the year CCCLIV handed over the city to Attila, & so escaped its destruction, & the aforesaid Felix of the whole century later, more than one Titianus must be placed. I do not know either what Carthaginian against the Arians Council Ughelli found: for the Councils which near the end of the fourth century were there held, either looked to the Donatists' schism, or to ecclesiastical discipline, nor are present the subscriptions of the Bishops, among which the found names of Florentius & Vindemialis, would have given cause so to think.
[5] John Bonifacius, in the place above named, writes about the year 394, that both died in Corsica, & the first indeed, & that immediately upon his arrival there, Florentius; but Vindemialis some time later; when first the Islanders, worshipping a demon under the appearance of a larger serpent, he had drawn from so foul a superstition, another says, not living but dead were brought to Treviso. with the serpent killed: but that Rothari the Bishop the bodies of those buried there thence brought to Treviso. Whence I cannot judge otherwise, than that the Saints having crossed from Africa into Corsica is certainly held, but how at Treviso their bodies are, is unknown. But the serpent killed by Vindemialis, was nothing other than his victory over the Arian heresy.