St Vincent of Foligno

Legend of the 300 Syrians

In 1586, the Dominican scholar, Giovanni Battista Bracceschi (referenced below) confronted the chronological incoherence that characterised the legend the Legend of the Twelve Syrians (BHL 1620).  Having consulted hagiographic sources from across Umbria, he came to the conclusion that there must have been two waves of emigration of Syrian monks into Italy, one in the 4th century and one in the 6th century.

One of Bracceschi’s sources was the Leggendari del Duomo di Spoleto, which included:

1. ✴legend of SS Felix and Maurus (BHL 5791m), which relates that St Maurus and his son, St Felix, were among the 300 Christians who fled from Cesarea and Laodicea (in modern Turkey) at an unspecified date; and 
   

2. ✴legend of St Laurence (BHL 4748 d), who was one of an “infinita turba” (boundless multitude) of Syrian immigrants that included SS Felix and Mauro and also SS Lazarus and John.  
   

Fr. Bracceschi concluded that the dating of the latter legend to the year of the Consuls Marcus Aurelius Carus and Marcus Aurelius Carinus (i.e. to 283) must have been a mistake.  He supported his argument by citing the fact that Duke Faroald had built a monastery (the Abbazia di San Pietro in Valle at Ferentillo) for SS Lazarus and John: he believed that this must have been Faroald I, who became Duke of Spoleto in 576.  By this tortuous line of reasoning, the so-called Legend  of the 300 Syrians was developed to describe the putative second wave of immigration in the 6th century.

Jacobilli’s Life of St Vincent of Foligno

According to Ludovico Jacobilli (referenced below, at pp. 142-9)  St Vincent was one of the 300 Syrians.  he and a group of companions built a hermitage dedicated as Santissima Trinità outside Foligno.   Pope John I consecrated him as bishop of Foligno in 523.  He died on 24th May 551 and was buried in the Duomo.

Ferdinando Ughelli (referenced below, at columns 686-7) published an account of the life of the alleged Bishop Vincent of Foligno, which seems to have been based on Jacobilli’s information.   This was published in the ‘Acta Sanctorum’ (18:29), with the observation that the dies natalis of this St Vincent coincides with that two martyrs of this name recorded in the Roman Martyrology:

1. ✴St Vincent of Lérins; and
   

2. ✴St Vincent who was martyred at Porta Romana.
   

Francesco Lanzoni (referenced below, at p. 450) observed that:

1. “Today, it is difficult to say whether Vincentius was:
   

2. ✴an authentic bishop of Foligno (whatever the time of his episcopate) who was transformed in the hagiography of Umbria into a member of the fabulous army of eastern migrants; or
   

3. ✴a solitary saint venerated in Foligno who was later transformed into a bishop of the diocese” (my translation). 
   

Lanzoni omitted him from his list of early bishops of Foligno, a judgement maintained in modern scholarship.

St Florentius of Foligno

Panel of St Florentius, from the Sant’ Eutizio Polyptych (1472)

Museo del Ducato, Spoleto

St Florentius in the Dialogues of Pope Gregory I

The ‘Dialogues’ (3:15) record that, at the time that the Goths first invaded Italy:

1. “... in the province of Nursia there dwelt two men, observing the life and habit of holy conversation: the one was called Euthicius and the other Florentius:
   

2. ✴Euthicius bestowed his time in spiritual zeal and fervour of virtue, and laboured much by his exhortations to gain souls to God; but
   

3. ✴Florentius led his life in simplicity and devotion”.
   

This is the basis of the legend described in my page on SS Eutychius and Florentius of Norcia.  According to Gregory I, when St Eutychius became abbot of what became the Abbazia di Sant’ Eutizio, St Florentius remained alone in their original hermitage.  He prayed for a companion and:

1. “... having ended his devotions ... found a bear standing before the door ... And because he had in the house four or five sheep which had no keeper, he commanded the bear to take charge of them.” 
   

Four monks from the abbey who were jealous of St Florentius’ reputation for sanctity vindictively killed his bear.  (The image above of St Florentius also depicts his bear and his sheep.) St Florentius prayed for vengeance and the four monks were duly:

1. “...stricken with a leprosy ... and so they died miserably.” 
   

St Florentius and Foligno

Ludovico Jacobilli (referenced below, at pp. 150-9) included Florentius among the saints of Foligno, noting that the people of Foligno had celebrated his feast on 1st June and that they believed that his relics were preserved in their Duomo.  He also asserted that, when the Duomo of Foligno was reconsecrated in 1146, it was initially dedicated as SS Giovanni Battista, Feliciano et Florentio (although it soon became dedicated only to St Felician):

1. ✴Ferdinando Ughelli (referenced below, at columns 693-4) published the official document that recorded the dedication of the Duomo as SS Giovanni Battista, Feliciano et Florentio in 1146.  
   

2. ✴Luigi Sensi (referenced below, 1985, at p. 309) suggested that the presumed relics of St Florentius had been placed in the so-called sarcophagus of St Messalina in the chapel at the base of the campanile at this time.
   

Jacobilli acknowledged that St Florentius was venerated at Norcia on 23rd May (with St Eutychius) and on 27th June (in his own right), and that it was claimed that his relics were preserved the Abbazia di Sant’ Eutizio.  However, he relied of the opinion of Giovanni Battista Bracceschi (above), to the effect that St Florentius had been one of the so-called 300 Syrians and a companion of St Vincent (above).  He also pointed out that Filippo Ferrari (referenced below, at p. 228) included the following entry under June 1st in his edition (1625) of a list of saints that were not in the Roman Martyrology:

1. “Florentius confessor: from the archives of the church of Foligno, where his relics lie” (my translation).
   

Jacobilli therefore suggested that, after the death of St Eutychius, St Florentius had moved to Foligno and that St Vincent had built a hermitage for him outside the city that was known as San Silvestro (later Santo Spirito).  When he died there 8 years later, on 1st June of 548 or 550, St Vincent had arranged for his burial in the Duomo.

It is, of course, entirely possible that the “St Florentius” who featured in the dedication of the Duomo in 1146 and whose relics were venerated there was quite unrelated to St Florentius of Norcia.