St Maximus of Turin, A Forgotten Father of the Church

In the Martyrology, the next-to-last entry for today reads, “At Turin, the birth into heaven of St Maximus, bishop and confessor, most celebrated (or ‘renowned’ (celeberrimi)) for his learning and holiness.” With all due respect to the great Cardinal Caesare Baronio (1538-1607), who wrote this entry for his revision of the Martyrology in 1568, it is something of a rhetorical exaggeration to say that Maximus was “most celebrated.” There is almost no trace of devotion to him as a Saint outside his native city. The Usuarium catalog of liturgical books does not record that his feast was kept anywhere in the Middle Ages, and indeed, the previous editions of the Martyrology which Baronius used as the basis of his text do not mention him. The oldest known biography of him was not written until about 600 years after his death, and is not regarded as historically trustworthy.

A statue of St Maximus at the shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Turin. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Syrio, CC BY-SA 4.0.)

In one of his sermons, Maximus describes himself as an eyewitness to the martyrdom of Saints Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, which took place in a place called Anaunia, in the valley of Trent in northern Italy, in the year 397. It is guessed that he was in his mid- to late teens at the time, and thus born around the year 380. He is named among the bishops who attended a synod in Milan in 451; the last notice we have of him is from the year 465, when he attended another synod in Rome. His name appears on the list of bishops who subscribed to the acts of the latter immediately after that of the pope, indicating that he was senior bishop present. He is the first bishop of Turin whose name is known to us, but it is not known when or how he came to that office. And these are the only details of his life which we can say are known for certain. There seem to be very few artistic representations, judging not only from the dearth of images on Wikipedia, but from the fact Nicola de’ Grandi, who has visited and photographed a huge number of churches in northern Italy, doesn’t have any.

No modern edition of his works was published until 1784, when the task was undertaken by an editor called Bruno Bruni, issued by the press of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome, and then reproduced in Magne’s Patrologia Latina. Bruni divided these writings (rather arbitrary, in the estimation of the patrologist Fulbert Cayré; vol. 2, 13.2) into 118 homilies and 116 sermons, with both blocks subdivided according to subject: the seasons of the liturgical year and the feasts of the Lord; feasts of the Saints; various theological topics. But more modern research considers that a great many of these, more than half, are not authentic; in his series of Wednesday audience talks on the Church Fathers, Pope Benedict XVI stated that “we have inherited a collection of about 90 of his Sermons.” (Oct. 31, 2007)

Since his feast falls between two of the greatest and most ancient among the Church’s feast days, the Nativity of St John the Baptist yesterday, and the feast of Ss Peter and Paul on the 29th, here are excerpts from one of his sermons for both of these days.

“In praise of the holy and most blessed John the Baptist, whose birth we celebrate today, I do not know what is the most important thing we should preach on – that he was wonderfully born or more wonderfully slain. For he was born in prophecy, and murdered for truth; by his birth he announced the coming of the Savior, and by his death he condemned the incest of Herod. For this holy and just man, who was begotten apart from the common way of men as the result of a promise, merited from God that he should not depart this world by a common death, but that he should lay aside his body, which he had received as a gift from the Lord, by confessing the Lord. Therefore John did everything by the will of God, since he was born and died for the sake of God’s work.” – Sermon 5

St Peter Enthroned, with Ss John the Baptist and Paul the Apostle, 1516, by Cima da Conegliano (ca. 1459-1517.

Though all the blessed apostles receive an equal share of grace from the Lord of holiness, nonetheless in some way Peter and Paul are seen to stand out from the others, and to excel by reason of a certain special virtue of faith in the Savior. Indeed, we can prove this by referring to the judgment of the Lord Himself; for to Peter, as to a good steward, He gave the key of the heavenly kingdom, and upon Paul, as one skilled in instruction, He enjoined the teaching office in the establishment of the Church. Thus, those whom the latter would educate to salvation, the former would receive into peace, and while Paul would enlighten their hearts with the teaching of his words, Peter would open to their souls the kingdom of heaven. Therefore Paul also received, so to speak, a key from Christ, that of knowledge; for whatever opens up the hard places of hearts to faith, lays bare the secrets of minds, and brings what is kept closed within out into the open by a reasonable manifestation ought to be called a key. That is a key, I say, which both opens the conscience to the confession of sin, and inserts grace for the eternal saving mystery. Both, therefore received keys from the Lord: the one of knowledge, and the other of power. The one dispenses the riches of immortality, the other distributes the treasures of knowledge. For there are in fact treasures of knowledge, as it is written, “In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden (Col. 2, 3). Therefore do the blessed Peter and Paul stand out among all the Apostles and excel by a certain special prerogative. – Sermon 1