ON ST. SEPTIMIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, AT ÆSIUM IN PICENUM
At the beginning of the IV century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Septimius, bishop and Martyr, at Æsium in Picenum (S.)
BY J. P.
§ I. The Acts of the Saint, unknown to ancient writers; the findings of his body; his cult.
[ ] Æsium or Æsis, commonly Jesi, an episcopal city of Italy and of the Papal dominion, which was once reckoned among the cities of ancient Umbria, The Saint, patron of the church of Æsium, is inscribed in no ancient Calendars but is now situated in Picenum not far from the river Æsis, acknowledges as its first bishop St. Septimius, of whom we shall treat here briefly. Briefly, I say, on account of the scarcity of documents. The people of Æsium honor him solemnly every year on this day, and, as I shall show below, have honored him from time immemorial as a martyr of the IV century, and as the particular patron of their church: but — which is truly remarkable — he seems to have been unknown to all ancient writers, to all martyrologists down to the XVII century, in which Philip Ferrari, the first that I know of, inscribed him in both his Catalogues of Saints: in the General one indeed today in these words: At Æsium in Picenum, of St. Septimius, bishop and martyr, patron of the same city; but in the particular one of Italy at the V day of September, which he believed to be the day of his death, with a longer eulogy; in both places he cites the Acts of St. Septimius, from the documents of the church of Æsium, but in both places he warns that the said documents need criticism. He alleges the reason in his Annotation to the eulogy, namely because the Saint is there said to have been ordained by St. Marcellus the Pope, and killed at the beginning of his episcopate. Hence he says: This must have happened while Maxentius was usurping the empire at Rome, between the year of the Lord 305 and 310, whereas in the Acts of St. Septimius it is read to have been done in the year 461: it seems therefore that 151 years, perhaps by the writer's error, have been added.
[2] That Annotation of Ferrari most probably gave occasion, in the last century, to our Predecessors inscribed; his Acts from the lessons of the Office, to inquire into the Acts themselves, from which both Ferrari and Ughelli, in volume 1 of the Italia sacra among the bishops of Æsium, abridged the eulogy of St. Septimius. But I find nothing obtained by them beyond the lessons of the second Nocturn, customarily recited in the Office of the XXII day of September, and agreeing in almost everything with the eulogies cited. Of those lessons I have one printed copy, printed at Æsium in the year 1624, and two manuscript ones, of which the first, with an attestation of the bishop, to be recited below, was transmitted here in the year 1638; the other in the year 1664 with the following admonition of the most reverend Andrew Vallemari, Camaldolese abbot of Fabriano in the March of Ancona: The lessons about St. Septimius, which the canons of the church of Æsium and all its diocese recite in choir, I enclose here; but their author is not known, nor whence they were taken; in this I have used every diligence. So he.
[3] Yet it cannot be doubted that Ferrari had before him Acts distinct from the lessons, composed by an unknown author, we shall reprint. since that which he asserts in the Acts to need criticism — namely the Saint's martyrdom fixed to the year 461 — is by no means expressed in the lessons, just as neither in the eulogy itself in Ferrari, who probably passed over many things besides these; whether of better quality, who shall say? Meanwhile, until those Acts, if indeed they still exist, are dug out of the darkness, they will be suspect to us, not only on account of the anachronism assigned by Ferrari, but most of all because the things narrated in his Catalogue and in the lessons, whose source Vallemari with all his diligence could not detect, are so similar to the faulty Acts of St. Emygdius, bishop and martyr of Ascoli, likewise in Picenum, printed by us in volume 2 of August at the V day, that it must at once be evident to anyone comparing them either that both proceeded from the same author, or rather that the one was imprudently taken from the other: which I wonder was noticed by Ferrari in neither place, when he gave an abridgment of both. That asserted similarity I shall prove by several examples in the Annotations to the lessons hitherto mentioned, which are to be appended to this Commentary.
[4] A church sacred to St. Septimius; a twofold finding of his body; As for what concerns the ancient cult of the holy Prelate, that same lack of documents stands in the way of our bringing forward anything particular; from the lessons we learn that the cathedral church was consecrated to his name long before the year 1469, in which his body, hidden until then, is said to have been found by Thomas Isilerius, bishop of Æsium, and translated into the cathedral church, erected of old in his memory. Here the sacred body lay hidden, and indeed in the earth, as is added in the same place, deeply buried and in a neglected floor, down to the times of Tiberius Cincius, promoted in the year 1621 to the bishopric of Æsium and afterwards adorned with the Roman purple, who, having found it again, raised it up and solemnly laid it in a new tomb. These things are described at greater length in the Life of the same Most Eminent man in Ciaconius, volume 4 of the Lives of the Popes and Cardinals, column 672. Take his words: Although it was reported that the relics of this holy pontiff and martyr (Septimius) were preserved, laid up in the metropolitan church of Æsium, yet where they were, in what corner of it they lay hidden, was clear to no one. Hence a holy care to search for them came upon Tiberius, the present bishop; he applied himself to the business, and, God prospering the pious undertaking, he found the desired treasure, deeply buried beneath the ground, with an inscription and clear signs, which would not allow prudent men to doubt that those were the bones of the holy martyr and pontiff Septimius, founder of the church of Æsium.
[5] a solemn elevation; Therefore, having dug the sacred ashes out of a deep and squalid pit, he exposed them publicly in a richly adorned casket, and to the whole city gathered in the temple he discoursed with a weighty and pastoral oration to this effect: “You have here, citizens of Æsium, by a singular benefit of God, as it were your Pastor come to life again, or rather the Prince of your pastors, who, when your fathers had been converted from the diabolical superstition of idols to the holy and saving faith of Christ, first brought the episcopal honor into this city. He lay hidden and concealed for many ages, divine Providence so permitting in its inscrutable secrets; as the body of the holy protomartyr Stephen etc.” To these he subjoins several examples of the chief relics of the Church, whose findings, after they had long lain hidden, are commemorated with a yearly celebration, and thus continues: “By these examples it befits us also, if not to celebrate a public feast by the rite and usage of the whole Church, yet to celebrate this our private feast of the finding and exaltation of our holy father and of the glorious pontiff and martyr Septimius”: whose Life being thereupon recited in sum, and having exhorted, as the matter required, all who were present to honor and invoke him, he thereupon celebrated the sacred Liturgy with fitting apparatus and chant. And presently he enclosed the venerable relics in a noble place and tomb, prepared and adorned by himself, as is clear from the following inscription in the cathedral. The aforesaid inscription, together with the other which is exhibited there, was transmitted to us from Æsium with a manuscript copy of the testimonial letters here subjoined.
[6] Tiberius Cincius, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Æsium. of a new tomb To all and singular who shall inspect, see, read, and likewise hear these our present letters, we make faith and attest that in our cathedral church of Æsium, at the high altar, in which is fittingly preserved, with great devotion of the people, the body of St. Septimius, on the Gospel side of the said altar there are the following inscribed.
D. O. M.
“Citizen, stranger, whoever you are that stand here, venerate as a suppliant the remains of heroic virtue. The body of St. Septimius lies here. Him St. Marcellus gave as first bishop to the city of Æsium; which city he, having subdued it by miracles, trained it by precepts, planted it by preaching, watered it with his blood, and made it flourish daily in all uprightness of manners, guards with his present patronage.”
[7] inscriptions; But on the Epistle side there are the following inscribed:
“The sacred pledge of so great a Prelate and Patron, Or rather a treasure deeply buried in the ground, When it had long lain hidden in a neglected floor, The skillful piety of Tiberius Cincius, bishop, found it; The pious munificence of Cardinal Scipio Borghese Adorned it, laid up in a more honorable urn of varied marble.
A. F. S. M. DC. XXIII
Citizen, stranger, this is what I wished; you may go.”
In faith of all and singular which things we have ordered and caused these present letters to be made and to be written by our undersigned chancellor, and to be furnished with the impression of our seal, which we use in such matters. Given at Æsium from the episcopal palace on this twenty-fifth day of the month of September, 1636.
Place ✠ of the seal Thus subscribed. T. Cincius, Bishop of Æsium and below Antonius Bartholomeus, chancellor of the bishop.
The word enclosed in brackets, and perhaps omitted in our manuscript, I have added from Ciaconius and Ughelli, who nevertheless themselves need correction in the year of the inscription, which they note as 1633 by manifest error, since almost the same words of the inscription are read in the Lessons printed in the year 1624. The aforesaid prelate joined to the letters already recited others, in which he attested both the present-day and the ancient cult: they run thus:
[8] Tiberius Cincius, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Æsium. the present-day and ancient cult. To all and singular who shall inspect, see, and likewise hear these our present letters, we make faith and attest that in our cathedral church of Æsium, on the twenty-second day of September, the festival of St. Septimius, bishop and martyr and patron of our church, is solemnly celebrated, and that from time immemorial the lessons of the second nocturn have been recited at matins, and that at present these present printed lessons are recited. In faith of all and singular which things we have ordered and caused these present letters to be made and to be written by our undersigned chancellor, and to be furnished with the impression of our seal, which we use in such matters. Given at Æsium from the episcopal palace on this twenty-sixth day of the month of September, 1636.
Place ✠ of the seal Thus subscribed. T. Cincius, bishop of Æsium and below Antonius Bartholomeus, chancellor of the bishop.
The same most devout venerator of our Saint was in the year 1645 enrolled by Pope Innocent X among the Cardinal priests of Rome, and having returned to his church, before he yielded to fate — which happened on the XXVI day of February 1653 — he bequeathed to the altar of St. Septimius (the words are those of his Life in Ciaconius) the sacred furniture which he used in performing sacred rites, to which before his death he had given as a gift six silver candlesticks with a cross.
ACTS
From the proper lessons of the Office, printed in the year 1624.
Septimius, bishop and Martyr, at Æsium in Picenum (S.)
The Saint's native country, his baptism; a miracle; Lesson IV. Septimius, sprung from the Roman colonies planted in Germany, born of honorable parents, and from his earliest years imbued with the liberal disciplines, made such progress in a short time that by his gentleness, kindness, and other virtues (although still a pagan) he was most agreeable to all. Having passed his youth, as the Roman laws required for the lawful age, he enrolled himself in the army; but by divine aid, recognizing that the worship of the pagan gods was superstition, he presently forsook the false religion of the idols, embraced the Christian faith, though his parents were unwilling, and desired to be initiated by holy baptism; from which time he gave himself wholly to works of piety and to the study of the sacred Scriptures, in which he was so confirmed in the Christian religion that he could never be moved from it by any tears or prayers of his parents; and he was then further strengthened when, as he was once discoursing on divine matters in the presence of those same parents and a great multitude of men, the temple of Jupiter, shaken by an earthquake, fell down together with its idol a. But Thou, O Lord.
[2] his journey into Italy, his episcopate, other things Lesson V. Then, admonished from heaven in his sleep, leaving his parents and his native land, and betaking himself into Italy, together with Æmilius, Germanus, and Valentinus he came to Milan, where, as he was speaking intrepidly and freely the proclamations of Evangelical truth, the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian still pressing on, he is compelled to depart depart in haste. Wherefore, having set out for Rome with the same companions, and there having visited with fitting reverence the tombs of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul, he healed by the power of God the daughter of the soldier Glatianus, by whom he had been kindly received, who had suffered an issue of blood for five years, and rendered her, together with her parents and the whole household, Christian; at which time also he restored sight to a blind man, who also himself confessed that the true God was Septimius's Lord Jesus Christ b. But amid these things, being well known to Marcellus I, in the year 304 or thereabouts, who then presided over the Roman Church, on account of his remarkable piety and his other virtues, he is initiated into sacred Orders, and at length, marked with the Apostolic office, is ordained Bishop of the city of Æsium c. Having set out thither, and having met with Florentius the consular judge, when the latter asked him the cause of his coming, and commanded him to sacrifice to the idols, he steadfastly answered that he was a Christian, and had been sent thither by the supreme Pontiff of the Christian religion, that he might overthrow the works of the devil, and bring to those in want of truth that light, and teach that the worship which is due to God alone must in no way be attributed to idols d. But Thou, O Lord.
[3] LESSON VI. Having heard these things, Florentius, inflamed with anger, miracles, martyrdom; the findings of his body. appointed a respite of five days for Septimius, that he might sacrifice to the gods, or know for certain that he must die. He meanwhile, when he had said many things nobly and wisely to the people about the truth and excellence of the Christian religion, in testimony of the truth heals a paralytic with the sign of the cross e; and besides many others, he made Marentia, the daughter of Florentius, a Christian f, for whom, when at an unsuitable moment she unseasonably asked for Baptism in an unsuitable place, a rock, at God's command, supplied water, that the work might not be delayed g. At the sight of so great a miracle, almost all who were present, converted to the faith of Christ, were regenerated in the same saving laver. At which things Florentius, stirred by more vehement wrath, straightway orders Septimius to be struck with the axe in the same place h; whose body the Christians secretly carried into the city, and, having anointed it with unguents and spices, gave it burial. But as wars more frequently infested Italy, and peoples were consumed by other evils and others renewed, when the place of his burial had been utterly buried in oblivion, at length it came about by God's favor that after a thousand, a hundred, sixty and more years, in the very year of salvation one thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, his body was found by Thomas, bishop of the same city, by whom it was translated into the cathedral church, erected of old in his memory: and being deeply buried in the ground, when it had long lain neglected in the floor, the skillful piety of bishop Tiberius Cincius found it, and the pious munificence of Cardinal Scipio Borghese adorned it, laid up in a more honorable urn of varied marble. A. S. F. 1624 i. But Thou, O Lord.