Priscus

ON ST. PRISCUS OF NUCERIA OF THE PAGANS IN ITALY.

Priscus, Patron of Nuceria of the Pagans, in Italy (S.)

G. H.

[1] Nuceria, a famous and ancient city of the Picentini, praised everywhere by the ancients, Livy, Cicero, Tacitus and others, called by later men of the Pagans, perhaps because the Saracens, expelled from Sicily, under Frederick II Emperor dwelt in it: others may bring forward other causes; at least by this surname it is distinguished from another Nuceria, the Patron of Nuceria of the Pagans is St. Priscus the Bishop a city of Umbria. It is situated in that part of ancient Campania which now is called the nearer Principality, near the mountain of the Hirpini beyond the Sarno river, between Naples and Salerno, to which it is closer, and to it as metropolis the Bishops of Nuceria are subject. The tutelary Patron is St. Priscus, believed the first Bishop of the place, to whom the Cathedral is dedicated, but at what time he lived is not sufficiently established. Under the Emperor Nero in it were crowned with martyrdom SS. Felix and Constantia, whose day is celebrated on the XIII Kalends of October in the Roman Martyrology: which is an argument that the Christian faith was then received in it. Ferdinand Ughelli in tome VII of Italia Sacra, in the Bishops of Nuceria of the Pagans, has these things about St. Priscus: St. Priscus, the first Bishop of this Church, reported by Ughelli, is reckoned to have been crowned with martyrdom under Nero, whose feast day is celebrated on IX of May in the Roman Martyrology, about whom Baronius in the Notes, and is the tutelary Saint. But in today's tables of the Roman Martyrology no mention is made of this Priscus: but well of those reported above SS. Felix and Constantius, who suffered there under Nero. The second Bishop of this Nuceria is established by Ughelli as Primerius, to whom St. Gregory the Great directed Epistle 47 of book 2 of the Register: and he still doubts whether he was Bishop of Nuceria in Umbria. But granted he is left to this Nuceria, what space of five centuries intervened, in which no Bishop is known to have sat there? It seems therefore from mere conjecture to be said that St. Priscus suffered under Nero. The same is mentioned by David Romaeus on the Saints of the Neapolitan kingdom page 400 with these few words: and Romaeus. Priscus Pontiff of Nuceria VII Ides of May.

[2] Antonius Beatillus of the Society of Jesus at Naples sent us the Life of St. Priscus, Bishop of the City of Nuceria, extracted from a certain old Lectionary of St. Matthew of Salerno: Latin and Italian Life. he adds that it had also been printed at Naples. But perhaps he understands it as translated into Italian by Paul Regio, printed at Naples in the year MDCXXVII; by whom the Latin author is called Brother Lucius Baldinus. A summary of this Life was published from Paul Regio by Philip Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy on the day VIII of May: where in the Annotation he wonders that the time in which he lived was not expressed, nor the Pontiff before whom he was accused named. For these omissions are wont to render the history suspect, especially if it contains improbabilities. Thus he,

[3] But that Brother Lucius Bandinus seems to have shrewdly guarded against this, lest the things he so freely uttered as fabricated by himself be reckoned not only improbable but plainly invented. Therefore Ughelli prudently abstained from any mention of this Life written in Latin and also translated into Italian, and perhaps in place of the Roman Martyrology and the Notes of Baronius, he wished to indicate the Catalogue of Ferrarius and his Annotation. We do not judge those Acts worthy of the press and remove them from our work, perhaps collected a thousand years after the Saint's death. We warn however with Ferrarius that the sanctity of Priscus the Bishop ought not to be called into doubt, since the Church of Nuceria has always venerated him as illustrious in miracles as the tutelary Patron, and dedicated to him the Cathedral Church. The same Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints, who are not in the Roman Martyrology, has reported the same Priscus on the day VIII of May: but Beatillus praised above warned that he is venerated on the seventh of the Ides or day IX of May, as Ughelli and Romaeus also indicated above: and Paul Regio in the summary placed before the Life, asserts also that on day IX of May he rested in peace.