ON THE HOLY VIRGINS AND MARTYRS ACTINEA AND GRAECINIANA AT VOLTERRA IN ETRURIA
UNDER DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY
On their cult, the finding of their Relics, the translations, and various inspections.
Actinaea, Virgin and Martyr at Volterra in Etruria (S.)
Graeciniana, Virgin and Martyr at Volterra in Etruria (S.)
G. H.
We treated on the 5th of June of Saints Justus and Clement, Patrons of the city of Volterra, and we took our beginning from a Commentary sent to us by the people of Volterra themselves about these Saints: from which we now go on to illustrate the memory and cult of these aforetitled Saints, beginning from the finding, The Acts from the Commentary sent. joined with the finding of the said St. Clement: which is reported in this manner.
[2] In the year 1140, the Camaldolese Monks of the monastery of Saints Justus and Clement, seeking the body of St. Clement the Monk, found [it] in his ancient tomb. But digging the earth deeper, near the wall they found a stone, In the year 1140 in which carved letters were read stating that Saints Actinaea and Graeciniana were buried in the same place. Only the names could be read: the names found by chance, but the rest of the elements of the inscription, corroded by time and dampness, although everyone had directed the light of his acumen to the investigation of them, yet to none on account of the consumed tips of the letters was it given to read. Indeed, less could be had a certain knowledge of the very place, the bodies too are found by a revelation; in which the bodies of the Saints lay buried, than of the names. The Monks therefore, when they had sought there many days, laboring in vain; God admonished in his sleep a certain man of Volterra, upright in life and a man of much devotion, concerning the very place, where the Relics of the Saints lay hidden: in which when they dug the earth under the wall toward the North, one body not far from the other, with a leaden plate, in which this inscription was carved, they found: "These two women, Actinea and Greciniana, suffered in the Times of Diocletian and Maximian."
[3] A certain man possessed by a demon, when to the Relics of the Saints, by the divine power operating it, he was drawn unwilling; and the demon indicates the kind of martyrdom. openly confessed that the minds of the praetor, the attendants, and the executioners had been irritated against the Virgins, who were always most constant: and disclosed that the one, after divers tortures, her head cut off, had flown to the palm of Martyrdom; the other, pierced with very many strokes of a dart, had attained to the double reward of Virginity and passion. Which the monks, examining more subtly in the bodies of the Saints, found the incision in Actinaea's neck, but the piercing of the dart in the bones of Graeciniana: they found. The report of this matter being quickly spread abroad, Adimarus the Bishop, those [relics are reported translated on 16 June] with the Clergy, the Magistrates, and the people of Volterra, from the Church of Saint Justus to the church of the Abbey of St. Justus, dedicated to St. Salvator, with a solemn procession took care that the Relics of the Saints be translated: which on the 16th day of June, honorably laid under the higher altar, where they are venerated they place. Which day by the people of Volterra, by the diploma of Innocent the Second, is held festive, and with a solemn rite in their honor an office is celebrated. All of which is reported in the Lessons and hymn of the aforesaid Saints, which by the precept of Leo X the Church of Volterra recites, and the memorial books of the Abbey, the same Lord Augustine Fortunius in the Life of St. Justus, and all the other more recent writers testify.
[4] Nevertheless from the very inscription of the urn of St. Clement it is most evidently established that these last Authors erred concerning the time. in the time of Innocent II. For if the body of St. Clement was found by the Monks and laid up there in the year 1120; but the Relics of the Saints, in seeking out the body of St. Clement, were found by them; therefore they too in the year 1140 were detected. Nor does the diploma stand in the way, by which Innocent the Pope ordered their feast to be celebrated: because, since the lead of the seal, torn off, had perished, it can by no means be known whether it was Innocent the third: but rather it must be believed, that this was Innocent the second, not the Third who in the year 1140 was sitting… From which it sufficiently appears that Raphael of Volterra did not attain certainty of the time, nor under which Innocent the bones of these Virgin Martyrs were found: perhaps because the inscription of the aforesaid urn had been hidden from him. Therefore the bodies of the Saints under Innocent the second in the aforesaid year 1140, not however 1200 nor 1191, as very many have asserted, were found.
D. P.
[5] reexamined in the years 1492 and 1600 Afterward by Abbot Justus Bonvicinius, in the year 1492, likewise in the year 1572 by Abbot Philip Franconius in the presence of the Clergy and Magistrates of Volterra, likewise by Bishop Lucas Alamannius in the year 1600, they were uncovered and reexamined: at which recognition two deputed from the public Council of the city were present, just as in the public Diaries seen and read by him the Notary, soon to be named, professes to be established: who inserts into the Acts of the most recent recognition the words of the inscription, then found in the marble, which remains inserted in the pavement of the Choir on the back part of the high altar, of this tenor: "Here within are reserved the Relics of Saints Actina and Graeciniana, who suffered in the eleventh persecution, [under an inscription, which says that the saints lay hidden there for 384 years before the finding,] under Diocletian and Maximian the Emperors, and (as is believed) under Marcellinus the supreme Pontiff. They lay hidden in the church of Saints Justus and Clement for about 384 years, found afterward under Innocent the Third, and were translated to this church of St. Salvator, with daily Statute [of] memory, article, etc., and this Samuel set up in the year 1600." This inscription the Commentator charges with error not only in the time of the finding, by naming Innocent the Third, instead of the second; but also in asserting that these Relics lay hidden 384 years in the church of Saints Justus and Clement; since it is established that from the Empire of Diocletian, to the year 1140, more than 835 years had run their course. But the Commentator does not seem to have attained the sense of the inscription. For it does not say simply that the sacred bodies lay hidden, but that they lay hidden in the church of Saints Justus and Clement: but this was first built in the 6th or 7th century, when, the Saints perhaps having been raised in the time of Constantine the Great from the earth, or certainly a proper church having been built over their tomb (concerning which below), the Saints mentioned there were still resting, until the occasion or necessity came of translating them thither, where afterward in the year 1140 they were found. But since Samuel believed they were found under Innocent III, that is after the beginning of the year 1198, in which he was ordained; it only follows, by his own calculation, that the Translation, from the former to the latter place in which they are said to have lain hidden, was made about the year 816, more or less: which is both most probable, and could have been known to Samuel from elsewhere. But if, as Florence, so also Volterra were destroyed by Totila, as John Villani expressly asserts, History of Florence, book 2 chapter 3, writing that this was done in the year 440; we can conceive, that the church of the Saints which then existed, being destroyed, lay desolate for a longer time, and under its ruins for another 350 years the Saints lay hidden, before they were translated to the church of Saints Justus and Clement. And with all these things agrees Aemilius Fei in his Volterran Memoirs in Ms., which, brought up to the beginning of the 17th century, and transcribed in a most elegant hand, we lately received some time ago from Rome, in the Italian language: beyond which we have found nothing up to the most recent recognition of the Sacred pledges.
[6] This was made for the instruction of the aforepraised Commentary on the 18th day of January of the year 1647, or by our custom, reckoning the year from the Kalends of January,
[16]48, and is described in this manner. When D. Maffaeus, the other of the Deputies, was absent from the city, In the year 1648 the Abbot is asked to permit a new recognition; and when the Ecclesiastical Lords were impeded by various businesses and manifold causes (those namely, whom on the part of the City and Clergy we named deputed elsewhere, to institute the revision of all the Relics throughout the whole city) lest the time be deferred by delaying in the description of the Relics of Saints Actinaea and Graeciniana, the Most Illustrious Lords Priors by letters entreated the Most Reverend Father Lord Augustine Cavallus, Abbot of the Abbey of St. Justus, that with others he would come together for the recognition and description of the same Relics. Who with the Monks seconded the wishes of the Most Illustrious Priors: all of which is clear from the Instrument of Ser-Hieronymus de Compagnis, at which, with the Deputies from the city present, citizen and public Notary of Volterra, on the 14th day of the aforesaid month of January: which instrument, brought by the same Ser-Hieronymus to the Lord Deputies and handed to me the undersigned Notary (Francis son of Sebastian son of Augustine de Contis), summarily contains the following: that when the Most Illustrious Lords had betaken themselves to the aforesaid Abbey, D. Francis, son of the late D. Knight John Inghiramius, for the Religion (Order) of St. Stephen Prior of Borgo San Sepolcro, then present Provost of the Magistracy of the Most Illustrious Lords Priors of the people and city of Volterra, and Lord Francis Leonorius, one of the number of the said Priors. And having held a colloquy with the Most Reverend Father Abbot, unanimously with him and with several Monks of the aforesaid Abbey, in the choir of the said church they proceeded to the act of the aforesaid recognition. And first it was inspected, in the pavement of the said choir, on the back part of the high altar, that there is in marble a carved inscription, of this tenor: "Here within are reserved. &c."
G. H.
[7] Afterward it was seen that in the hollow wall, on the back part of the high altar, in the middle of it there is a little door, divided into two parts, of walnut wood, with a key, kept by the aforesaid Abbot, closed: which, with that very key opened, there was seen another little door in the middle of the wall of the altar itself, in the middle of the altar a chest is found covered only with a silken veil of red color, through which is the entrance into the hollow of the said altar: in the middle of which, in front of an iron grate, existing in the wall of the altar itself toward the Church, there was seen and found a little chest of walnut wood in the manner of a sepulcher, one cubit and a half long, high three or four cubit-parts (three-quarters of a cubit) or thereabouts, gilded on the front part. Which little chest through the said little doors being drawn out of the said altar by the monks and placed upon a table prepared in the said choir for this end, with several lights lit, there was seen in the middle of its face this inscription: with an inscription, "RELICS OF SAINTS VIRGINS AND MARTYRS ACTINIA AND GRAECINIANA." The chest was closed with two keys, of which the one pertains to the Most Illustrious Community of Volterra and the other to the Most Reverend Father Abbot, as he himself asserted. The little chest opened, it was seen that it was covered within with red silk: which removed, the chest was seen to be divided into two parts with a wooden tablet: and in each one of the said parts there was a great quantity of bones most white. And in the right part, on the said dividing tablet, was written the name of S. ACTINIA, and in it the bones of S. Actinia and there among the bones was a head, in which only there was lacking a part of the breadth of four fingers or thereabouts on the right side. But in the other part of the little chest, where was the inscription and are the bones of S. GRAECINIANA, there were seen among the other bones some parts of a head, and all were diligently preserved. and of S. Graeciniana.
[8] And in the left part of the said little chest there was found a leaden plate, long half a cubit or less, but broad five fingers or thereabouts. But on the one side of the plate this inscription was engraved:
"This translation of the Holy Virgins Actinia and Graeciniana was made in [15]71, with Pius V reigning [as] Supreme Pontiff, and Maximilian as Emperor, with inscriptions, concerning the year 1571 in the time of Lord Philip de Jantonibus, Abbot of the said Abbey."
And on the other face of the same plate this inscription was inscribed:
"On the 29th of April [16]00, when, with age, the casket, and [the year 1600,] in which were laid up the inscribed Relics, had been consumed; into this [one] they were placed by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Lucas de Alamannis, Bishop of Volterra, in the time of the very Reverend Lord Samuel Rissalius of Casentino, Abbot."
All these things are taken from the instrument of Hieronymus de Compagnis.
[9] The recognition of those Saints therefore being made, there was placed in the said little chest an inscription on parchment of this tenor, namely:
"The bones of the Holy Virgins and Martyrs Actinia and Graeciniana, citizens of Volterra, and another was made in the very year 1140 who in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian for the faith of Christ, the one her head cut off with the sword, the other pierced with an arrow, suffered; were buried by the faithful with a stone and leaden monument: in the year of the Lord 1140, in the most ancient church of Saints Justus and Clement, dug up by the monks and with solemn pomp by the Clergy and by the people of Volterra translated into this Church; and placed under this higher altar on the 16th of the Kalends of July of the same year, with Innocent the second supreme Pontiff, who commanded the very day of the translation to be venerated and revered by the inhabitants. At last, by D. Justus Bonvicinius, Patrician of Volterra, Abbot of this monastery, in the year 1492 repairing [it], the chest again was more becomingly laid up here. In this year 1647 the Most Reverend D. Augustine Cavallus of Apuania, most worthy Abbot of this monastery, on this 14th day of January reexamined [it]. From the instrument received through Hieronymus Compagnus, citizen and public Notary of Volterra."
According to the style there in use, for though we begin the year from January, [it] was to be noted (as I have already said) as 1648. The said little chest afterward was closed, with the key, with which it had been opened by the said Most Illustrious Lord Prior Francis, as Provost aforesaid, and the chest was placed back under the said altar in its accustomed place, whence it had been drawn out: and the little door aforesaid was closed with the key of the Father Abbot.
[10] These things accomplished, by command of the aforesaid Most Reverend Father Abbot there were translated from the Sacristy of the said Church into the choir, upon the same table, two silver heads, Then were reexamined silver heads with Relics, with a breast of gilded bronze, and with a similar crown upon the heads, with a certain opening adorned in the middle of the breast, covered with Crystal, through which is seen within such an inscription in golden letters, namely in the one:
"Here are laid up the Relics of the head of Actinia, Virgin and Martyr."
"Here are laid up the Relics of the head of Graeciniana, Virgin and Martyr."
"This work the Lady Camilla de Cerchis of Volterra, for the sake of piety and devotion, caused to be made in the year of the Lord 1608."
And in the back part of both bases it was seen that they were closed with two locks: of which one key is kept by the Most Illustrious Community, and the other by the Most Reverend Abbot for the time being. Which being seen and considered, the heads were placed back in their place in the said sacristy. The Relics of these Holy Virgins and Martyrs, are carried in supplication. when the title of some calamity or necessity presses, are sometimes wont to be carried with great devotion through the city in a solemn lustration (procession).
[11] Concerning the life of these Saints nothing else has been ascertained, except that for the faith of Christ they suffered in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian in the year of the Lord 303, The Acts are now sought in vain; at which very time in Etruria the persecution raged: in which Actinia's head [was] cut off, but Graeciniana's breast pierced with a dart. The obscurity of the deeds done by them flowed from the most severe edicts of those cruel Emperors, when the churches were leveled with the ground and the writings of the Christians consumed by fire. Whence not only the memories of these Saints perished, but also of very many other Martyrs who, undergoing martyrdom in this city, were monstrously slain. All these things we have collected from the Commentary of the people of Volterra, and reduced into this order. and only certain more recent memorials are held, We have proper Offices of the Volterran Saints printed in the year 1519, in which on this 16th of June are prescribed three proper lessons with a hymn. Likewise we have the Life and miracles of Saints Justus and Clement published in print in the year 1568, and there in chapter 28 [it] treats of these Saints: but these things need some correction indicated above, and the rest are better explained in the Commentary already set forth, where however somewhat more seems to be attributed to a certain small book, likewise brought for the instruction of the Deputies.
D. P.
[12] There among other things worthy of memory, was the Life of the same Saints described by the Knight Aemilius Feus; whose writing hand, form, and the life adorned with circumstances by Aemilius Feus, character had been very well known to the Lord Deputies; who, because he was a man of much reading and erudition, and labored much in examining the memorials, writings, and archives of this city, [in] tracking out the more abstruse and hidden things, is worthy to be much believed; both because he elicited most ancient monuments, and because from the most ancient Ms. Breviaries of the Abbey of St. Justus and from the writings of Raphael of Volterra he testifies to have excerpted them. For my part I would never have believed that he used great judgment, or followed documents worthy of faith, when he wrote, that the Holy virgins were born of the ancient family of the Tavianelli; not sufficiently probable that they dwelt in that part of the city, which today is called Florentiola, opposite the citadel placed upon the rock, in which then the Praetor appointed by the Emperors dwelt; that they were found by the ministers, sent for their seizing, kneeling before a statue of the Virgin Mother of God, holding her son between her arms; who impiously dared to cut off the head of the divine little boy, as there it was still to be seen with the admiration and veneration of the whole people.
[13] For my part I would not deny that something must from time to time be attributed to popular traditions, concerning their lineage and dwellings, of which indeed a just antiquity is proven; but that such traditions are to be trusted which distribute all the most ancient Saints among families of more recent note, no one prudently would have believed. But as for what pertains to the image of the Mother of God, preserved a longer time together with the dwellings; those dwellings perhaps will more probably be said to have been built upon the remains of an older church, anciently built over the bodies of the Saints, under whose ruins long lying hidden they (the Saints), at last to the church of Saints Justus and Clement were translated; there always remaining, however, some memory of them, on account of a statue of the Virgin found there, perhaps by some miracle, without the head of the little Jesus; whence was born the little fable about the injurious mutilation. However it may be, "In our age," says the Author of the Commentary, "of the aforesaid house there are no vestiges; but the holy image is preserved in the ancient oratory of the Confraternity of St. Peter, and there a statue of the Mother of God [was found.] whither it was translated to the altar on the right. But although Peter Ciacchius studied to adorn it with modern fashion and new colors, and had taken away from that figure the true form and appearance of antiquity, today nevertheless its beauty is graphically recognized, and breathes devotion into souls."
[14] Furthermore the Holy Virgins themselves (whose tender age the slenderness of the bones is said to attest) Ferrari celebrates on this day in his General Catalogue and the other one of the Saints of Italy, as also in Italian Silvanus Razzi in the Lives of the Saints of Etruria, page 401, Other writers about them. and Augustine of Florence, part 2 of the Camaldolese histories, book 2, chapter 6.