ON SS. CASTUS AND DESIDERIUS, MARTYRS, HONOURED AT PIACENZA IN ITALY.
From the Hieronymian and other Fasti.
Preliminary CommentaryCastus, M., at Piacenza in Italy. (S.)
Desiderius, M., at Piacenza in Italy. (S.)
BY J. S.
Castus and Desiderius announced together in the ancient Fasti, Two Martyrs I bring forward today, concerning whom I have much doubted whether they did not belong to another day and to some larger band of martyrs. The reason for doubting was that the Hieronymian codices do not all agree in announcing them today. I therefore inquired whether I might find the same men joined together on another day in the Hieronymian codices. Since I have not been able to find this, I judge it more probable that Castus and Desiderius belong to this day. And since from the consent of several codices it seems certain enough that they are Martyrs and suffered together, I shall here collect the few things which offer themselves concerning Castus and Desiderius. From the most ancient Echternach codex, in Florentinius in his Annotations, it is thus read: And at Mesolum, of Castus and Desiderius. The codices of Florentinius and of d'Achery have nothing indeed about them; but in the ancient Reichenau codex in our possession they are twice placed on the same day: first as it were with St. Antoninus of Piacenza, after whom they thus follow: Of Castus, of Desiderius. Then in this manner: Elsewhere, of Castus and Desiderius. In the Labbe codex it stands thus: The birthday of Æmilius and Castus. This seems a corruption, although Castus and Æmilius suffered together in Africa, of whom there was brief treatment at the XXII of May from St. Cyprian: for they are contrary to the remaining martyrologists, and from the place Mesolum the name of Æmilius could have arisen, just as we detect very many other things in the same Martyrologies no less corrupted. More correctly it is read in the Auxerre Martyrology in Martène: In the city of Piacenza, of SS. Antonius, Gastus (for Castus) and Desiderius.
[2] In the proper Offices of the church of Piacenza, which we have printed in the year 1635, likewise the festival of Castus and Desiderius celebrated together at Piacenza: at the XXX of September there is prescribed the Office of St. Jerome, but this observation is added: But the feast of the holy martyrs Castus and Desiderius, falling on the same day, is transferred to the following day, except in their own church, that is, in the church of St. Antoninus, in which the bodies of those same holy Martyrs lie buried. Then at the 1st of October there is placed a semi-double Office of the holy martyrs Castus and Desiderius. But the Lessons are given about St. Castus who suffered with Æmilius in Africa, and of whom there was treatment at the XXII of May, and about St. Desiderius, bishop of Langres and martyr, whose Acts were given among us at the XXIII of May. If I believed that these martyrs are today announced in the Hieronymian Martyrologies, it would be enough to make brief mention of them among the Passed Over. But I do not see on what foundation the men of Piacenza attribute to themselves the body of St. Desiderius of Langres, or even the body of St. Castus of Africa, who suffered with St. Æmilius. They say indeed in their lessons that the sacred bones of both are now kept at Piacenza in the church of St. Antoninus, and that the festival of both is celebrated together; but they do not declare on what occasion, at what time, or by whose work those bodies were translated to Piacenza. No more do they explain how it came about that an African martyr should be celebrated with a Gallic bishop on the same day and with the same Office, and that a lay martyr should be set before a martyr bishop.
[3] where their bodies are: the opinion of the men of Piacenza about their own Of the bodies of SS. Castus and Desiderius preserved in the church of St. Antoninus, Campi makes mention in various places in his History of Piacenza, and follows the opinion already set forth from their Office, but produces nothing by which he may confirm it. In book 4, at the year 418, page 121, he says that their bodies had been in the church of St. Antoninus more than eight hundred years before he wrote those things, about the middle of the seventeenth century. He believed therefore that those bodies had been there before the middle of the ninth century. He says also that the feast celebrated concerning them on the XXX of September is one of translation. The same writer, in book 6 at the year 758, page 192, says that some had read in an ancient writing, which was afterwards lost, that the bodies of SS. Castus and Desiderius had been translated to Piacenza while Desiderius was bishop of Piacenza and Desiderius was reigning as king among the Lombards, that is, some years after the middle of the eighth century. But everyone will easily see how weak that conjecture is, for which there is cited only a lost membrane, of whose antiquity or authority we know nothing. Then, being about to bring forward another conjecture, he first confesses that it is utterly unknown how long the body of St. Castus rested in Africa, and that of St. Desiderius in Gaul; or at what time those bodies were first joined together. Then he conjectures that both were first carried to Rome, and there the two joined together; and that, when Aistulf, king of the Lombards, was besieging Rome — which happened in the year 755 — they were dug up from the cemetery and carried to Pavia, and thence afterwards to Piacenza. But these conjectures lack not only every foundation but also every likelihood.
[4] does not seem probable enough: For it is neither likely nor credible that the body of St. Desiderius was carried from Gaul to Rome, to be laid up in some suburban cemetery; nor does the same become likely of Castus, the African martyr. For in the middle ages they were not wont to carry the bodies of Saints to the Roman cemeteries, but in those centuries they began to dig up sacred bodies from the Roman cemeteries, that, being raised and translated elsewhere, they might be held in greater veneration. Wherefore, if it were established that the bodies of SS. Castus and Desiderius had been translated from Rome to Piacenza — whether they had first been carried to Pavia or brought straight to Piacenza — I should the rather believe that they were Saints unknown and perhaps even anonymous, to whom the names of Castus and Desiderius were given after the elevation, unless these names, together with the signs of martyrdom, as sometimes happens, were found in the tombs. But this conjecture too is not necessary, since we do not know whence the men of Piacenza received those bodies. Yet it is more likely that the bodies are of two men Companions in martyrdom, than that one of the Martyrs was an African, the other a Gaul. Certainly the men of Langres will never admit that the body of their Desiderius is kept at Piacenza, since they believe that they possess it. The Acts of St. Desiderius of Langres were given among us at the XXIII of May, where also the finding and elevation of the body is recited, solemnly performed in the year 1314; so that it is only necessary to inspect what is there disputed, if anyone wishes to know how improbable is the opinion of the men of Piacenza about the body of St. Desiderius of Langres kept at Piacenza.
[5] Florentinius in his Annotations, when he saw that Castus and Desiderius are announced at Mesolum, and those of today do not seem to be distinguished from those of Piacenza. inquires into the place of the martyrdom, and conjectures with probability enough that they are African martyrs, since in Africa there was a kingdom or people called the Messoli or Massyli. The region of the Massyli is certainly known in Mauretania, and was a part of Numidia. But Ortelius doubts, in his Thesaurus at the word Mauretania, whether the Messoli mentioned by Plutarch were the same as the Massyli or different. But whether they be the same or different, they were certainly in Africa, and therefore probable is Florentinius's conjecture about the African arena of these Martyrs. Their bodies could have been translated into Italy, just as not a few other bodies of African Saints have been translated into Italy. But what makes me less bold to call that conjecture about the place of the martyrdom certain is the excessive corruption of the Hieronymian codices: for a slight corruption of the word Mesoli would at once overturn the whole foundation of the conjecture. I preferred therefore to assign in the title the place of the cult of SS. Castus and Desiderius rather than the place of the martyrdom, perhaps never to be found with certainty. But that the same men are announced in the ancient Fasti who are honoured at Piacenza becomes most likely, both because they are recorded on the day on which the festival falls, and because in the one they are clearly, in the other obscurely, attributed to Piacenza. Nay, they could even have suffered at Piacenza, or in its neighbourhood, since no document worthy of credit is brought forward about bodies translated.