When St Cajetan, the founder of the Theatine Order, and one of the great inspirations of the Counter-Reformation, was canonized in 1671, his feast was assigned to the date on which he died in 1547, August 7th. Until then, that day had been kept principally as the feast of a Saint called Donatus, a 4th century bishop of the Tuscan city of Arezzo; he had been added to the calendar at Rome about 500 years earlier, and was celebrated in dozens of other medieval Uses all over Western Europe.
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| The Tarlati Polyptych, 1320, by the Sienese painter Pietro Lorenzetti (1280 ca. - 1348), commissioned by Guido Tarlati, bishop of Arezzo, for the parish church of St Mary, which still houses it to this day. St Donatus is the bishop at the lower left, followed by Ss John the Evangelist, John the Baptist and Matthew; in the second register, the martyrs John and Paul (also killed by Julian the Apostate), Vincent, Luke, the two Jameses, Marcellinus and Augustine; in the cuspids, a virgin martyr named Reparata, (the titular Saint of the old cathedral of Florence), Catherine, Ursula and Agatha. In the central section, the Virgin and Child, the Annunciation, and the Coronation of the Virgin. |
The legend tells that he was educated in Rome by a priest called Pigmenius, alongside Julian, the nephew of the emperor Constantine, who is known to history with the epithet “the Apostate.” (In reality, Julian was raised in Asia Minor, and spent almost none of his life in Italy.) When the latter became emperor, he killed Donatus’ parents and Pigmenius, at which Donatus himself fled to Arezzo, where he lived with a holy monk named Hilarinus. He performed several miracles, and was eventually chosen as bishop. As he was celebrating Mass one day, the church was invaded by pagans, who broke the glass chalice as the deacon proffered it to the people. Donatus gathered up the fragments and restored the chalice by his prayers, but the devil managed to hide one of the pieces of the cup. Nevertheless, the Saint poured wine into it, which did not run out of the hole, a miracle which converted many of the pagans.
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| The Miracle of St Donatus, 1652, by the Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera. |
The Golden Legend continues with various other miracles, most notably the healing of the waters of a poisonous fountain, from which a dragon emerged at Donatus’ prayer, which he then killed. It also puts his martyrdom in roughly the year 380, “when the Goths were laying waste to Italy”, an event which did not actually happen until over 20 years later. But the pre-Tridentine Roman breviary says nothing about the dragon or any of the other, later miracles, stating simply that after “God glorified his Saint with many signs”, Donatus was martyred along with Hilarinus by Julian. (The later died in 363.)
The cathedral of Arezzo was originally built on a hill outside the city, over the site of Donatus’ burial, but in the later 13th century, replaced by a new structure within the city walls. In the mid-14th century, a large tomb for the Saint was built directly behind the main altar; much like that of St Peter Martyr and some others, it was designed so that pilgrims could walk through the structure and venerate the tomb above their heads. (People were of course rather shorter in the Middle Ages than they generally are now.) The front of the tomb is decorated with images of the life of Christ and the Virgin, and various Saints, including Donatus and Bl. Pope Gregory X, who died in Arezzo in 1276, and is buried in the cathedral. (The construction of the new church was financed in part by a large donation which he left for that purpose in his will.) The other side is decorated with scenes from the life of Donatus. (Both images from Wikimedia Commons by Sailko, CC BY 3.0.)
St Donatus’ skull is kept in this 14th century reliquary, in the church of St Mary which also houses the polyptych shown above. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Sailko, CC BY 3.0)
