St Donatus of Arezzo

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.

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.

In the last pre-Tridentine editions of the Roman breviary, (the breviary which St Cajetan would have used), his office has six hagiographical lessons, mostly taken from Bl. Jacopo da Voragine’s Golden Legend. The entry in the latter is based on a Passion attributed to Donatus’ successor as bishop, Severinus, which is indeed old enough that St Gregory the Great cites an episode from it in passing in the Dialogues. In the breviary of St Pius V, however, he is reduced to a single lesson of just over 70 words, which removes the many obviously dubious historical details; he also retains the title of a martyr, even though the oldest record of him in a martyrology calls him a confessor.

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.

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 latter 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)

A Reliquary from the Time of St Ambrose

Today is the feast of a group of four Saints, the martyrs Nazarius and Celsus, who are traditionally said to have died at Milan in the middle of the first century, and Popes Victor I (ca. 189-99) and Innocent I (401-17). On the Ambrosian Calendar, the two martyrs have the day to themselves, and their feast is kept with a vigil; there is also a feast of the translation of Nazarius’ relics on May 10th.

The high altar of the church of the Holy Apostles and St Nazarius, commonly known as “San Nazaro in Brolo”, with the relics of St Nazarius.

In 395 AD, their bodies were discovered by St Ambrose in a garden outside the city; when the tomb of Nazarius was opened, his blood was seen to be as fresh as if he had just been wounded. His relics were then taken to a basilica which Ambrose had constructed about 15 years earlier, and dedicated to the Twelve Apostles; a large apse was added to the church, and the relics laid to rest in a crypt in the middle of it. In 1578, in the course of building a new altar for the church, a silver reliquary contemporary to the original construction of the basilica was discovered under the high altar, with relics of the Apostles Ss Peter and Paul inside it. St Ambrose himself attests that these relics had been given to him by Pope St Damasus I, for the first dedication of the church to the Twelve Apostles; St Charles was rather disappointed to find that they were not relics of their bodies, but relics “by contact”, pieces of cloth that had touched the Apostles’ bones. Nevertheless, he donated one of his own copes to wrap up the relics of St Nazarius, the Apostles, and four of his Sainted predecessors among the archbishops of Milan, who were buried in the church. The reliquary is now displayed in the museum of the Archdiocese of Milan; thanks to Nicola for all of these pictures.

On the lid of the reliquary are shown Christ and the Twelve Apostles. On the lower left are seen the baskets of fragments collected by the Apostles after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes; on the lower right, the six vessels of water turned into wine during the Wedding at Cana. The custom of representing Christ beardless to distinguish Him from the Father was still common in this era, although soon to fade away. The classical style of all five of the panels is very typical of the highest quality artworks of the era, as one would expect from a work commissioned by a man of aristocratic background and high political rank like St Ambrose; this is particularly evident in the pose of the standing figures, which are very reminiscent of the better Roman statues.

Joseph sitting in judgment on his brothers; the young prisoner on the left is Benjamin, the older one on the right is Judah. The hat worn by Joseph and the other brothers, known as a Phrygian cap, was generically associated by the Romans with peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond, and often adopted by the Christians to represent the characters in the Old Testament.

The Three Children in the Furnace, also wearing the Phrygian cap, and the angel that comes to make the inside of the furnace cool.

The Judgment of Solomon.

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The Feast of St Camillus de Lellis

Today is the original feast day of St Camillus de Lellis, who died on July 14, 1614; he is one of a series of Saints displaced from their respective death days by the feast of Pope Anacletus, now recognized to be the same person as Pope Cletus. (In the post-Conciliar Rite, he is kept on the day of his death.) Born in the Abruzzi region of Italy, he served in youth as a soldier of the Venetian Republic against the Turks; he is honored as a Patron Saint of gambling addicts, since he himself suffered much from this vice, which once literally cost him the shirt off his back. Reduced by gambling to the most extreme poverty, he underwent a conversion experience which led him to embrace religious life, and eventually, after priestly ordination, to found a congregation of Clerks Regular, the Ministers of the Sick. In addition to the ordinary vows, the Camillians, as they are sometimes called, also take a fourth vow to minister to the ill, even when they suffer from a contagious disease, and likewise, to attend the dying of whatever condition. The red cross now internationally recognized as a symbol of medical care originated from the large red cross which St Camillus’ sons and daughters wear on the front of their habit. Pope Leo XIII declared him a Patron Saint of the sick, and along with St John of God, the founder of the Order of Brothers Hospitallers, added his name to the Litanies for the Dying.

Shortly after its founding, the order received as a gift a small church dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, very close to the Pantheon in the center of Rome. It was completely torn down, and over the course of the 17th century rebuilt as one of the most elaborate churches in the city, despite its small size; the relics of St Camillus, who was canonized in 1746, now rest in the side chapel of the right transept.

An effigy of St Camillus, with his bones underneath.

The side-altar of the right transept, in which his relics were formerly kept, and a bust-reliquary of him above.

The main altar

The fresco of the apse, showing Christ healing the sick. 

In a side chapel at the back of the church on the right side is kept this Crucifix; as St Camillus was praying before it, the arms miraculously opened up and Christ spoke to him from it, to encourage him in the founding of the Order.

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The Translation of St Thomas Becket

On this day in the year 1220, the relics of St Thomas Becket were translated from the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to a splendid new shrine in the main body of the church. This was one of the major religious events of the era, celebrated in the presence of King Henry III and many leading churchmen; in the Use of Sarum, it was commemorated by its own feast on July 7th, with the feast of the Holy Relics assigned to the following Sunday. It was of course the presence of St Thomas’ relics that made Canterbury such an important place of pilgrimage in medieval England, famously noted in the prologue of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (verses 15-18): “And specially from every shire’s ende / Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende (went), / The hooly blisful martir for to seke (seek), / That (t)hem hath holpen (helped) whan that they were seeke (sick).”

Because Thomas had given his life to defend the independence of the Church from undue interference by the civil power, King Henry VIII had the shrine destroyed in 1538, and forbade all devotion to him, even requiring that every church and chapel named for him be rededicated to the Apostle Thomas. The place within Canterbury Cathedral where the shrine formerly stood has been empty ever since; this video offers us a very nice digital recreation. Like the nearly contemporary shrine of St Peter Martyr and several others, the casket with the relics rests on top of an open arched structure, so that pilgrims can reach up and touch or kiss it from beneath, without damaging the metal reliquary itself.

The same source provides another video which shows sick persons praying at the original burial site in the crypt, which continued to attract pilgrims even after the relics themselves had been moved to the upper church. (The same is true of the church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro in Pavia, where the original sarcophagus which held the relics of St Augustine is kept, although the relics were long ago moved to the main sanctuary.)

How Medieval Christians Celebrated the Rogation Days (with a Dragon)

The following description of the Rogation Processions comes from a canon of the cathedral of Siena named Oderico, who in the year 1213 wrote a detailed account of the liturgical texts and ceremonies used in his church.

“Mindful of that promise of the Gospel, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive,’ (John 16, 24; from the Gospel of the Sunday which precedes the Lesser Litanies) St Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, in this week instituted the three days of the Litanies, because of an urgent necessity … days which are greatly celebrated by every church with fasts and prayers. The Greek word ‘litany’ means ‘supplication,’ because in the Litanies we beseech the Lord that he may defend us from every adversity, and sudden death; and we pray the Saints that they may intercede for us before the Lord. … The Church celebrates the Litanies with devotion in these three days, with (processional) crosses, banners, and relics She goes from church to church, humbly praying the Saints that they may intercede with God for our excesses, ‘that we may obtain by their intercession what we cannot obtain by our own merits.’ (citing a commonly used votive Collect of all the Saints.) ...

It is the custom of certain churches also to carry a dragon on the first two days before the Cross and banner, with a long, inflated tail, but on the third day, (it goes) behind the Cross and banners, with its tail down. This is the devil, who in three periods, before the Law, under the Law, and under grace, deceives us, or wishes to do so. In the first two (periods) he was, as it were, the lord of the world; therefore, he is called the Prince or God of this world, and for this reason, in the first day, he goes with his tail inflated. In the time of grace, however, he was conquered by Christ, nor dares he to reign openly, but seduces men in a hidden way; this is the reason why on the last day he follows with his tail down.” (Ordo Officiorum Ecclesiae Senensis, 222)

Oderico does not describe the dragon, but given that Siena is in Tuscany, still a major center of leather-working to this day, we may imagine that the dragon itself was a large wooden image mounted on wheels or a cart, and the inflatable tail something like a leather bellows. It should be noted that in addition to the processional cross, Oderico mentions both banners and relics as part of the processional apparatus. In the medieval period, it was considered particularly important to carry relics in procession; so much so that, for example, a rubric of the Sarum Missal prescribes that a bier with relics in it be carried even in the Palm Sunday procession. A typical bier for these processions is shown in the lower right corner of this page of the famous Book of Hours known as the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. made by the Limbourg brothers between 1411 and 1416.

The Tomb of St Peter Martyr in Milan’s Portinari Chapel

Here are some great photos from our Ambrosian correspondent Nicola de’ Grandi of the Portinari Chapel at the Basilica of St Eustorgio in Milan. They were taken during a special night-time opening made possible by a new lighting system; as one might well imagine, the Italians are extraordinarily good at this sort of thing, and more and more museums throughout the country are now offering occasional visits in the evening or night. The chapel is famous as the place where the relics of St Peter Martyr are housed in a large medieval “ark”, which, as noted several years ago in a guest article by our friend Dr Donald Prudlo, was designed so that the faithful could pass under it to touch and kiss it.

The ark of St Peter Martyr was carved by Giovanni di Balduccio in 1339, but has only been in the Portinari Chapel since the 18th century. The major panels on the front show St Peter’s funeral, his canonization, and a posthumous miracle by which he saves a ship in danger.

On the back, St Peter heals a mute, causes a cloud to cover the sun while he preaches outdoors, and heals a sick man and an epileptic.

This inscription records the praises of St Peter by his confrere St Thomas Aquinas. “When St Thomas Aquinas had visited the grave of St Peter as he was traveling to France in the year 1265, wondering at so great a martyr, he said ‘A herald, lantern, fighter for Christ, for the people and for the faith, here rests, here is covered, here lies, wickedly murdered. A sweet voice to the sheep, a most pleasing light of spirits, and sword of the Word, fell by the sword of the Cathars. Christ makes him marvelous, the devout people adore him, and the Faith which he kept by martyrdom adorns him as a Saint. But Christ makes new signs speak, and new light is given to the crowd, and the Faith spread (thereby) shines in this city.”

The dome and vaults of the chapel, painted by Vincenzo Foppa from 1464-68. 

On the left, the miracle of the cloud; on the right, a very famous apparition in which the devil appeared to St Peter in the guise of Virgin, but was driven off when St Peter showed him a Eucharistic Host and told the apparition, “If you are truly the Mother of God, then adore your Son!”

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The Exposition of the Holy Lance at St Peter’s Basilica

The YouTube channel of EWTN recently published a video about the exposition of the Holy Lance at St Peter’s basilica on the first Saturday of Lent. This was formerly done on the Ember Friday, which was long kept as the feast of the Holy Lance and Nails, but since this feast is no longer observed, the exposition of the relic has been transferred to the following day, when the station is at St Peter’s. Each of the four massive pillars which hold up the church’s dome is dedicated to one of its major relics (apart from those of the Apostle himself, of course): the True Cross, a piece of which is kept there; the Holy Lance; the skull of St Andrew; and the veil of Veronica. The last of these is shown to the faithful on Passion Sunday, when the station is also at St Peter’s. Our good friend Jacob Stein from Crux Stationalis is interviewed, and talks about the importance of the station and the relic, the veneration of which starts Lent off by looking forward to the Passion on Good Friday.

Here is Jacob’s own video about the station of that day: as a reminder, his YouTube channel has new videos about the stations and other Roman customs several times a week at least.

A Mid-Western Saint from Rome: Guest Article by Mr Sean Pilcher

Thanks once again to our friend Mr Sean Pilcher, this time for sharing with us this account of the relics of a Saint from the Roman catacombs, which were brought to the cathedral of Dubuque, Iowa, in the 19th century. Mr Pilcher is the director of Sacra: Relics of the Saints (sacrarelics.org), an apostolate that promotes education about relics, and works to repair, research, and document relics for religious houses and dioceses. Sacra recently did an inventory and cleaning of the relics as part of the cathedral’s recently completed renovation.

In 1837 Pope Gregory XVI named Msgr Pierre-Jean-Mathias Loras (1792 – 1858), originally born in France, first bishop of the diocese of Dubuque. This territory was of considerable size, ranging over present-day Iowa, Minnesota, part of Wisconsin, and the Dakotas. Bishop Loras’ father, Jean-Mathias Loras, had been guillotined during the French Revolution for harboring priests. Two of his aunts and one uncle were also be put to death for sheltering priests in their home. Loras had a strong sense of his identity as a Catholic, and a knowledge that he would have to sacrifice much to spread the Faith. Once he was consecrated bishop, he set about learning all he could of his new diocese. There were three Catholic parishes, an Indian mission, and one priest.

Roman Boy Martyr, Oxford Oratory. Photo courtesy of the Rev’d James Bradley, J.C.D.

In an audience with the Holy Father, Bishop Loras received relics for his new mission. These relics, usually remains of martyrs from Rome’s catacombs, were meant to bridge the gap between the Old World and the New World, as well as establish spiritual ties between mission territory and already-Christianised Europe. As holy relics of a saint, they would also form a spiritual bond between Catholics striving for holiness on earth, and those who had already won the crown in heaven.

Msgr Mathias Loras

Relics would be used in consecrating new altars as churches were established, and could serve as a focal point for local liturgical life and popular devotion to the saints. The New World could not yet boast many saints—it was Bishop Loras’s job to change that—but in the meantime, Rome could spare a few.

The reliquary box brought by Bishop Loras from Rome. All photos of relics and reliquary courtesy of Katzie & Ben. Photography.

At his audience with the Pope, Bishop Loras received a marbled wooden box containing relics of a Roman boy martyr called Cessianus from the catacombs. The Saint, whose name is a nomen proprium, and not a generic name affixed to remains, was removed from the catacombs of St Callistus and granted as a sign of unity, encouragement, and commission to Bishop Loras. He brought the marbled wooden box with the bones, a glass ‘vessel of dried blood’ (which we shall return to later), and possibly a marble gravestone, on a boat with him to America, and it was on this dangerous journey that Loras’ particular devotion to the Saint began.

Eugène Louis Boudin, Le Havre, Brooklyn Museum

It was time to make the long journey across the sea. As Bishop Loras and his companions left Le Havre, France, on 27 August, 1838, they brought the box of the relics of the Saint, whom he endearingly called Saint Cessien–early English-language sources call him St Cessian. The journey was of course taken by boat, and subject to considerable danger. Bishop Loras credited his safe arrival in New York on 10 October to the intercession of his boy saint; he was even able to offer Mass with the relics several times while at sea, a great source of consolation to all present. He did not arrive until April of 1839; from New York he first went to St Louis, and then traveled with the relics up the Mississippi to his new diocese, arriving two full years after his appointment by the Pope. When he made his solemn entrance into his cathedral in the American wilderness, St Cessian was there. Here was a true meeting of Romanità and the pioneering spirit of the New World.

After settling into his new diocese, Bishop Loras wrote to the Sacred Congregation of Rites in Rome asking for St Cessian to have a special feast in his diocese, with its own Mass and Office, on 25 October:

‘Je vous prierai si ce n’est pas trop tard, de faire insérer dans l’ordo pour le diocèse de Dubuque au 25 octobre, festum Sancti Cessiani, Martyris, Duplex cum suo officio de praecepto.’ (I should ask you, if it is not too late, to kindly add into the ordo for the Diocess of Dubuque, a feast of St Cessian, martyr, on 25 October, a duplex feast with an obligatory office.)

Catacomb martyrs are saints, but it was not always a given that they would be liturgically commemorated. This letter shows the importance St Cessian’s feast had for Bishop Loras, and the initiative he personally took to establish devotion for him in his diocese.

His Excellency Mathias Loras, First Bishop of Dubuque

The feast of St Cessian (25 October) comes the day after the titular feast of the cathedral and diocese’s principle patron, St Raphael the Archangel, whose traditional feast is 24 October. The date has a connection to the Saint’s grave marker from the catacombs. Although the marker has not yet been rediscovered, the inscription on it was carefully recorded on the relic’s documentation. It may have been irrevocably lost, or may still lie in an archive somewhere.

The inscription from the grave marker, as recorded on the document given to Bishop Loras. 

The inscription reads ⳨ ΘΚΑΛΑ—ΝΟΒ—ΚΑΤ. ΚΕϹϹΙΑΝΟϹ. The first character is a staurogram or chi-rho symbol, a mark of the Christian Faith. Then follows ‘nine days (the Greek letter nine is written as the letter theta) before the kalends of November, Cessianus was buried.’ The date is October 24, the same day as St Raphael, so Bishop Loras chose the following day for his feast. Since St Cessian would be the patron of the whole territory, celebrations of the two saints could be easily linked. If and when the original marker is found, its inscription can be compared to this record to ensure a match.

Another, unrelated Christian gravemarker, for reference.

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More Pictures of the Feast of St Agatha in Catania

Last week, we shared Peter’s pictures of the celebrations of the feast of St Agatha in her native city of Catania in Sicily. Another friend of ours, Dom Jakobus, a canon regular of Herzogenburg Abbey in Austria, was also there, and graciously agreed to share his pictures with us. Those of the Saint’s reliquary and the procession of it through the city in the first part were taken on the eve of the feast, February 4th.

The reliquary in the sanctuary of the cathedral...

with an honor guard.

The faithful touching pieces of cloth to the reliquary, which then become a relic by contact. (This is a very ancient custom, already attested at the tombs of the Apostles in Rome in the earliest years of the Constantinian peace.)

The reliquary is carried through the city. 

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The Relics of the Magi in Cologne and Milan

In some liturgical books of the Use of Cologne, Germany, today is noted in the calendar as “Obitus tertii regis – the death of the third king”, but it appears that this feast was never in general use within the archdiocese. (It is missing from many books altogether, especially the post-Tridentine editions, and in others is relegated to an appendix.) The kings to which this title refers are the three Magi, whose relics were taken from the basilica of St Eustorgio in Milan in 1162 by the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa, after his conquest of the city. The relics were given to the imperial chancellor for Italy, Rainald von Dassel, who was also archbishop of Cologne, and installed in his see’s cathedral; to this day, Cologne still celebrates the feast of the translation of the relics on July 23rd. The impetus to build the city’s gigantic “new” cathedral (begun in 1248, but not completed until 1880, with a hiatus of over 280 years, from 1560-1842) came in no small part from the desire to build a space that could accommodate the large crowds of pilgrims who came to venerate these relics. (Images of and related to the Cologne reliquary from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.)

Image from Wikimedia Commons by Raimond Spekking

In 1190, von Dassel’s successor as archbishop, Philip von Heinsberg, commissioned a goldsmith from Verdun named Nicolas to make a new reliquary for the Magi. It was finished after 35 years of work, and is one of the largest medieval reliquaries that survives: more than 3’ 7” by 7’ 2” at the base, just over 5 feet tall, and weighing over 1100 pounds. The core is made of oak, covered over with gold, gilded copper and silver, and decorated with small golden statues, precious stones, gems, cameos and enamels. Over the centuries, it has been kept in various parts of the cathedral; since 1948, it has stood in a display case right behind the high altar.

by Arabsalam

The reliquary seen from the back, within the ambulatory of the apse.

by Joseacaraballo

The front has a plate which can be removed to expose a grill, behind which can be seen the skulls of the three kings. This is done every year on the Epiphany, and on special occasions.

by Elya

The lower part of the front is divided by highly decorated columns which form an arcade. In the middle sit the Virgin and Child, as the Magi approach from the left. Behind the Magi stands the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV (1209-18), who donated three golden crowns for the three skulls in 1200. (These were stolen and melted down in 1803.) To the right is shown the Baptism of Christ, and above, Christ in majesty flanked by two angels. Above Him are the archangels Gabriel and Raphael in round medallions; St Michael was replaced by a jewel. (Obviously, the glass case in which the reliquary is kept for security purposes makes for less than optimal photography. The next four images are all by Velopilger, CC0 1.0.)

On the back are shown on the left the Flagellation of Christ, and on the right, the Crucifixion, with the Virgin Mary and the Apostle John. The prophet between them is labelled as Jeremiah, but the text on his scroll is from Isaiah. Above the prophet is a portrait of Rainald von Dassel, and in the upper section, the personification of the virtue of Patience, flanked by the Milanese martyrs Felix and Nabor, whose putative relics were also brought to Cologne, and formerly kept in this reliquary.

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Another Look Inside the Restored Notre-Dame de Paris

Following up on a post which I made last Friday about the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris, the American news program 60 Minutes posted an interesting video on the same subject two days ago. I thought it would be worth sharing because it is longer than the French one in my other post, and shows not just the final results, but also tells us a good amount about the restoration process, including some views of murals in the side chapels (predominantly the work of the last great restoration, in the 19th century.) A good portion of it involves an interview with the French president Emmanuel Macron, who, from what I have seen, really deserves credit for pushing to make sure that the restoration would be faithful to the traditional architectural form and decorative style of building, within certain inevitable limits. (I have just read an article this morning that the French government is currently spiraling through a major political crisis; some of what Mr Macron says towards the end of this may seem rather self-serving, and should perhaps be considered in light of that fact. Politicus politicat...)

What ever else might be said about the role which the French government has had in this project, one can only thank God that most of it was not in the hands of the people who thought that these vessels

and this display for the relic of the Crown of Thorns

were good ideas. It really is time for the Sacred Congregation for Rites to issue a sternly worded decree that objects purchased in the kitchenware section of IKEA 30 years ago are not to be used in the rites of our holy mother the Church.

Speaking of relics, by the way, today, December 4th, is the day when the church of Paris originally celebrated a feast called “Susceptio Reliquiarum – the Receiving of the Relics”, instituted in 1194 to commemorate some of Notre-Dame’s most significant relics. As I have described in a previous article, this feast was later transformed into a general commemoration of all relics, and moved to the octave day of All Saints. The Crown of Thorns, however, was not among those that were originally celebrated by this feast, since it was acquired later, in the 13th century, by St Louis IX, and belonged not to Notre-Dame, but to the famously magnificent chapel which he built to house it, the Sainte-Chapelle.

St Louis IX receiving the relics of the Crown of Thorns, the Holy Lance, a part of the True Cross, and others from Constantinople, as depicted in a manuscript of the 14th century (1332-50), now in the British Library. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

The Relics of St Andrew

In the Roman Breviary, the life of St Andrew the Apostle ends with the statement that “When Pius II was Pope, his head was brought to Rome, and placed in the basilica of St Peter.” This statement gives no idea of what an extraordinary event the translation of this relic was in the life of the Church at the time.

St Andrew is traditionally said to have died in the city of Patras on the northwestern coast of the Peloponnese, which was usually called “the Morea” in the Middle Ages. In 357, under the Emperor Constantius, his relics were brought to Constantinople, and remained there until the city was sacked during the Fourth Crusade, when they were brought to the Italian city of Amalphi; his head, however, had remained at Patras.

(Each year, for the feast of St Andrew, the reliquary kept in the crypt of the Duomo of Amalphi is taken out for a long procession though the city, and then returned to the church in a rather remarkable fashion, as seen in this video.)

In the later years of the Byzantine Empire, the Peloponnese was made into its own principality within the Empire, ruled by relatives of the Emperor, and called the “Despotate of the Morea.” (“Despotes” in Greek simply means “prince.”) The last two princes, Demetrius and Thomas, were the brothers of Constantine XI, under whom the Great City fell to the Turks in 1453. The Morea, however, was not immediately invaded, and the despotate continued to exist for seven years afterwards. Partly as a gesture to gain the Latin Church’s support for a new Crusade to drive the Turks out of Greece and the Balkans, partly to prevent the relic of the Apostle’s head from being destroyed in the by-then inevitable invasion, the despot Thomas decided to consign it to Pope Pius II.

Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini was known as one of the great men of letters of the Italian Renaissance, although much of his writing as a layman, and most of his personal life, would hardly suggest a man fit for the clerical state, much less the Papacy. However, after years of involvement with important matters of both Church and State, he underwent a profound moral conversion; after receiving the subdiaconate in 1446, he was made a bishop about a year later, a cardinal by 1456, and elected Pope in 1458. His papal name “Pius” was chosen as partly in reference to his secular name “Aeneas”, since Virgil constantly calls the hero of his Aeneid “pius Aeneas.”

Pope Pius II Canonizes St Catherine of Siena, from the famous Piccolomini library in the cathedral of Siena, by Pinturicchio, 1502-8. Pius was born in a small town within the territory controlled by Siena, where his family became especially important upon his election to the Papacy, and he was particularly proud of the fact that he was able to canonize a great “home-town hero” among the Saints. The proper Office of St Catherine still used to this day in the traditional Dominican Breviary was composed by him.

We may be tempted to dismiss this as no more than a clever literary reference from an age very much enamored with clever literary references, but this would be unjust. The Latin word “pius” means “one who fulfils his duty”, duty to God, to one’s country, and to one’s family, and therefore, among its many meanings are “pious, devout, conscientious, affectionate, tender, kind, good, grateful, respectful, loyal, patriotic.” Under the heading of the last of these, Pope Pius died while attempting to rally the Christian princes to the defense of Europe, as the Turks prepared to press further into the Balkans, and cross the Adriatic into Italy.

Under the heading of the first two meanings, “pious and devout”, Pope Pius devoted several pages of his autobiography to the events surrounding the reception of St Andrew’s head. After the despot Thomas had rescued the head from Patras, he brought it to Ancona, a major Italian port on the Adriatic, protected by its presence from severe storms during the crossing. Pius’ legate was sent to examine it, and declared it authentic, after which it was brought to the city of Narni, and left there for a time on account of political and military disturbances then flaring up in Italy. When these had died down, preparation was made for it come to Rome; the Pope had thought to go meet it by bringing with him the heads of Ss Peter and Paul which were kept in the Lateran, but gave up on this idea because the reliquary in which they were enclosed was too heavy to conveniently move.

The high altar of St John in the Lateran; in the enclosed area above may be seen the reliquary containing the skulls of Ss Peter and Paul. (These are not the reliquaries which Pope Pius II found too heavy to move, which were likely destroyed during the sack of Rome in 1527, but later replacements. Image from Wikipedia.)

On Holy Monday, the Pope and his court, along with an enormous crowd of Romans, went forth from the Flaminian gate to meet the three cardinals charged with bringing the relic from Narni, close to the Milvian bridge, the site of Constantine’s famous victory so many centuries before. A large platform was erected in the middle of a field, so that all could witness the event, with two staircases on either side, and an altar in the middle. As Pius II describes the event, “as the Pope ascended the one side, weeping with joy and devotion, followed by the college (of cardinals) and the clergy, (Card.) Bessarion with the two others ascended from the other side, bearing the small arc in which the sacred head was contained, and set it on the altar… the arc was then opened, and Bessarion, taking the sacred head of the Apostle, weeping, handed it to the weeping Pope.” Pius then gives his address before the crowd.

“Thou hast finally come, most sacred and adored head of the Apostle! The furor of the Turks has driven thee from thy place; thou hast fled as an exile to thy brother. … This is kindly Rome, which thou seest nearby, dedicated by thy brother’s precious blood; the blessed Apostle Peter, thy most holy brother, and with him the vessel of election, St Paul, begot unto Christ the Lord this people which stands here. Thy nephews, all the Romans, venerate, honor and respect thee as their uncle and father, and doubt not of thy patronage in the sight of God. O most blessed Apostle Andrew, preacher of the truth, and outstanding asserter of the Trinity! With what joy dost thou fill us today, as we see before us thy sacred and venerable head, that was worthy to have the Holy Paraclete descend upon it visibly under the appearance of fire on the day of Pentecost! … These were the eyes that often saw the Lord in the flesh, this the mouth that often spoke to Christ! …

We are glad, we rejoice, we exult at thy coming, o most divine Apostle Andrew! … Enter the holy city, and be merciful to the Roman people! May thy coming bring salvation to all Christians, may thy entrance be peaceable, thy stay among us happy and favorable! Be thou our advocate in heaven, and together with the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, preserve this city, and in thy devotion take care for all the Christian people, that by thy prayers, the mercy of God may come upon us.”

The Pope then lifted up the head for all to see, and the entire crowd knelt, most of them already moved to tears by the Pope’s oration. The relic was brought to the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, just inside the gates of Rome; from there, it was carried on Holy Wednesday under a golden processional canopy through the streets of the Eternal City to St Peter’s Basilica, accompanied by thousands of Romans and pilgrims.

Less than 50 years later, Pope Julius II would begin the process of tearing down the ancient basilica of the Vatican, which was then close to twelve centuries old, and in several places on the point of collapsing under the weight of its own ceiling. The new basilica, not the work of Pope Julius’ original architect, but of the genius of Michelangelo, is centered upon a massive elevated dome, directly over St Peter’s tomb. The base is pierced with enormous windows to show us that St Peter is God’s privileged instrument, who opens for us the doors of Heaven with the keys which Christ gave him, and that it is through Peter that God brings us up to Himself. The four enormous pillars which support the dome are each dedicated to one of the church’s major relics, among them the head of St Andrew, which was kept in a room behind the balcony seen here above François Duquesnoy’s statue of the Apostle. (In 1966, this relic was returned to the custody of the Orthodox Church in the city of Patras.)

The pillar of St Andrew in St Peter’s Basilica. (Image from Wikipedia)

The Legends of St Clement

The feast of Pope St Clement I, which we keep today, is one of the most ancient of the Roman Rite, attested in almost every pertinent liturgical book going as far back as we have them, to the so-called Leonine Sacramentary in the middle of the 6th century. It is kept on the same day in the Ambrosian and Mozarabic Rites, and one day later in the Byzantine.

The Apotheosis of St Clement, 1807, by the German painter Josef Winterhalder the Younger (1743-1807).

According to the consensus now generally accepted, he was the fourth Pope, although there is some confusion in the earliest sources as to his place in the order of St Peter’s successors. A tradition known since at least the time of Origen, who died ca. 252, identifies him with the Clement whom St Paul mentions in the Epistle to the Philippians (4, 3). This tradition is accepted in the Roman Missal as we currently have it, which read this verse in the Epistle of his Mass (Phil. 3, 17 – 4, 3), but this is not attested in the oldest Roman Mass lectionaries.

Clement vies with the anonymous writer of the Didache for recognition as the author of the first known Christian work outside the New Testament. In the Greek city of Corinth, some members of the Church had unlawfully deposed their presbyters, and Clement wrote them a fairly lengthy letter, in which he ordered that the deposed clerics be restored. This work was very well known in antiquity, and treated in some places on a par with the Sacred Scriptures by being read at the liturgy. It is included with the Gospel of John in a fragmentary Bible of the fourth century, and in one of the most important surviving great codices of the fifth, the Codex Alexandrinus. Despite the mention of it in St Jerome’s book On Illustrious Men, it was forgotten by the West until the 17th century, when the Alexandrinus was given to the English king Charles I in 1627. Since that time, it has been the subject of a great deal of scholarly study; one Anglican divine even described the letter as the first act of papal aggression against the independence of the local churches.

Part of the Epistle of St Clement shown in a photographic facsimile of the Codex Alexandrinus made in 1856.

This letter is Clement’s only known authentic writing, but the Codex Alexandrinus also has a text placed right after it, which is commonly, though improperly, referred to as his Second Epistle, a general sermon on the Christian life dated to roughly 120-140 AD. St Jerome also mentions it in On Illustrious Men, noting that it had been “reproved by the ancients”; on the other hand, he himself accepts the authenticity of two treatises on virginity which have often been attributed to Clement, but are properly dated to the third century.

In the pre-Tridentine Roman breviary, one of the Matins lessons for St Clement declares that “he wrote many books in his zeal for the Faith and the Christian religion”, a statement which is repeated in other words in the 1568 edition of St Pius V. This does not seem to refer, however, to the works mentioned above, which are three, not many; generously four, if we count the one explicitly rejected by no less an authority than St Jerome. I believe it is rather a holdover from earlier medieval sources, and refers to another set of apocryphal works, which modern scholars call the Pseudo-Clementine literature.

The history of this material is extremely complicated, and I can do no more than give a rough summary here. The article about it in the old Catholic Encyclopedia is quite thorough, although it was published in 1908, and has most likely been superannuated in some regards.

The lost original version of the Pseudo-Clementines is a document ascribed to the fourth century, and is generally believed to have resulted from the fusion and elaboration of two earlier apocryphal works. One of these is a purported account of St Peter’s preaching in various places. Eusebius of Caesarea speaks of this document in his Ecclesiastical History (III, 38), noting that it was attributed to Clement, but that it was not mentioned by any writers earlier than himself. St Jerome quotes Eusebius to this effect in On Illustrious Men, and refers to it elsewhere as “Periodi Petri – the wanderings of Peter.”

The Fall of Simon Magus, 1745, by the Italian painter Pompeo Batoni (1708-87).

The other, which provides the narrative framework, is the Klementia, a novel written in the third-century, fraught with plot twists, surprise revelations and improbable coincidences, the story of how the young Clement came to be separated from his family, and after becoming a disciple of Peter, was eventually reunited with them. Many people from the New Testament appear as characters in it, such as the Apostles James and Barnabas, the centurion Cornelius (Acts 10), and the Syro-Phoenician woman healed by Christ (Mark 7, 25-30), who is given the name Justa, and made to be the stepmother of two of Peter’s disciples. Simon Magus figures very prominently in the book as Peter’s antagonist, and much of the theological content (which is extensive, and in some regards bizarrely unorthodox) is framed within disputes between them.

Fairly early on, the book was split into two recensions, which have much in common, but also diverge from each other considerably in many places. The Greek one is known as the Clementine Homilies, while the other, whose Greek original is now lost, is called the Recognitions, from the Dickensian scenes in which so-and-so is at last revealed to be the long lost child of such-and-such, etc. The latter was the version known to the West throughout the Middle Ages, through the Latin translation made by a one-time friend of St Jerome named Rufinus, who, however, took the liberty of suppressing some of the more strangely unorthodox passages. (The acrimonious break between him and Jerome was provoked in part by his doing the same to some of the writings of Origen.)

In the long entry on St Clement in the Golden Legend of Bl. Jacopo da Voragine, about 60% of the material is taken from the Recognitions. But if the words of the Roman Breviary about Clement’s “many writings” are in fact a glancing reference to them, the story itself is given no space at all therein.

The Roman Matins lessons also skip the first part of what the Golden Legend says about Clement’s career after he became Pope. This is the story of how, after he converts a woman named Theodora, her husband Sisinnius follows her to church to see what she is doing there, but is struck blind and deaf on entering the building. At Theodora’s request, Clement comes to their house and heals him, but Sisinnius believes that he achieves this by magical powers which he plans to also use to seduce his wife. Sisinnius therefore orders his servants to seize Clement and bind him, but the servants’ minds are turned by God, and they wind up seizing and binding a marble column instead. Clement then says to Sininnius, “Because you call stones gods, you have merited to drag stones.”

In the 1860s, archeological investigation under the basilica of St Clement in Rome led to the discovery of the remains of the original church of the 4th century. At the very end of the 11th century, or the beginning of the twelfth, this structure was filled in and transformed into the foundation of a new basilica on top of it, thereby preserving some frescoes which at the time were very new, ca. 1065-1090. One of these depicts exactly this part of the legend of Clement, with Sisinnius and Theodora. At left, Clement is shown celebrating Mass at an altar decorated as it would have been in the later 11th century, accompanied by a group of clerics. (Note the candelabrum hanging from the baldachin, rather than resting on the altar.) On the right Theodora looks on as Sisinnius, struck blind and deaf, is led out of the church by his servants.

Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

The lower part shows Sisinnius yelling at his servants; the captions which give their names and his words to them are the oldest known prose inscriptions in Italian, and, unsurprisingly, very rude indeed. (“Fili delle pute” means “whoresons”; the translation of the other part is unprintable.) A version of Clement’s words cited above is given in Latin: “Because of the hardness of your hearts, you have merited to pull away stones.” The upper part of the fresco (cut in half when the floor of the new basilica was made) shows Clement with his predecessors, Ss Peter, Linus and Cletus, and five other figures, now unlabeled.

The story goes on to say that because of Clement’s success at making converts, he comes to the attention of the Emperor Trajan, who exiles him to the Crimean peninsula, where there was a penal colony attached to a marble quarry, with many Christians among the condemned. (The Romans did in fact exile people to the shores of the Black Sea, one of them being the poet Ovid.) On arriving, Clement learns that the workers must get their water from six miles away; he therefore prays and receives a vision of a lamb standing on a rock and pointing with its foot. Like Moses, Clement strikes the rock at that place to which the lamb pointed, and water begins to flow from it. This part of the story furnishes the proper antiphons for the psalms of Lauds and Vespers of St Clement’s Office, as e.g. the third one, “I saw the Lamb standing upon the mountain, and from under His foot a living spring floweth.”

St Clement Making Water Run from the Rock, by the Italian painter Bernardino Fungai (1450-1506). Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

This leads to the conversion of many others, but three years later, the news of this reaches Trajan, and he therefore sentences Clement to death. Executioners are sent from Rome, who row Clement out three miles from the shore, and throw him into the sea with an anchor tied around his neck.

The Martyrdom of St Clement, also by Fungai.

At the shore, his disciples pray that the Lord might show them the location of his body, (presumably in order to recover it), and the sea miraculously recedes to reveal a small marble temple, with St Clement’s body in an ark, and the anchor next to it. The Christians walk out to visit it, but it is revealed to them that they are not to remove the body; instead, each year, around the anniversary of his death, the water recedes again to uncover the temple. This gives us the Magnificat antiphon for Second Vespers of the feast: “O Lord, Thou gavest to Thy martyr Clement a dwelling place in the sea, after the fashion of a marble temple, fashioned by the hands of Angels, granting a way to the people on the land, that they may tell of Thy wondrous deeds.”

One year, at the end of the feast, a woman is frightened by the sound of the returning waters, and rushes back to the shore, accidentally leaving behind her little son, who had fallen asleep in the temple. The following year, when the waters recede again, she returns to find him safe and sound, and indeed still sleeping, unaware that he had been under the sea for a whole year.

This story is also depicted in the lower basilica of St Clement in Rome, in a fresco in the narthex. In the lower part are shown the family who paid for it, a couple named Beno and Maria, from an otherwise unknown place called Rapiza, along with their daughter Altilia, and their son, “the little boy Clement.” To the right of Maria is a dedicatory inscription which says that they had the fresco made as a thanksgiving “for the grace which (they) received”; it seems likely that this refers to the birth of the son whom they named for the church’s patron Saint.

Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.