Saint Cassius
Évêque
de Narni, en Ombrie (✝ 558)
À Narni en
Ombrie, l'an 558, saint Cassius, évêque. Selon le pape saint Grégoire le Grand, il offrait chaque
jour à Dieu le sacrifice d'expiation en fondant en larmes et distribuant en
aumônes tout ce qu'il avait. Enfin, le jour de la fête des Apôtres (Pierre et Paul), à l'occasion duquel il
avait l'habitude de se rendre chaque année à Rome, après avoir célébré les
saints mystères dans sa cité et distribué à tous le corps du Seigneur, il s'en
alla vers le Père.
Martyrologe
romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1406/Saint-Cassius.html
Saint Cassius of Narni
Profile
Bishop of Narni, Italy. Known to have given away all his possessions and
wealth to the poor. Made a yearlypilgrimage to Rome, Italy to celebrate Mass on the feast of Saint Peter and Paul as founders of the Church.
Saint Cassius (29th June)
The Roman Martyrology records, under 29th June:
1.
“At
Narni, St Cassius, bishop of that city. St. Gregory relates that he
permitted scarcely any day of his life to pass without offering propitiation to
Almighty God. It was in character with his life, for he distributed in
alms all he possessed, and his devotion was such that abundant tears flowed
from his eyes during the holy Sacrifice. At last, coming to Rome on the
birthday of the apostles, as was his yearly custom, after having solemnly
celebrated Mass and given the Lord's Body and the kiss of peace to all, he
departed for Heaven”.
The funerary
inscription (CIL XI 4164) of St Cassius survives, embedded in the screen of the
Sacello di San Cassio in the Duomo (see below). It is part of a relief
(illustrated above) that depicts two lambs and a cross. The inscription
also commemorates Fausta, the wife of St Cassius, who had pre-deceased him.
The text, which is written in the first person, reads:
CASSIVS INMERITO PRESUL DE MVNERE
CRISTI
HIC SVA RESTIVO TERRAE MIHI
CREDITA MEMB[RA]
QVEM FATO ANTICIPANS CONSORS
DVLICISSIMA VITAE
ANTE MEVM IN PACEM REQVIESCIT
FAVSTA SEPVLCRVM
TV ROGO QVISQVIS ADES PRECE NOS
MEMORARE BENIGNA
CVNCTA
RECEPTVRVM TE NOSCENS CONGRVA FACTIS
S .D. ANN.XXI. M.VIIII. D.X
R.Q. IN PACE PRID. KAL. IVL P.C. BASILI
VC ANN. XVII
It contains two
important dates:
1. ✴St Cassius died on
“PRID KAL IVL” (30th June), 17 years after the year of the Consul Basil (who
was in office in Byzantium in 541) - i.e. on 30th June 558. This
formula was used because Narni was in Byzantine hands at the time.
2.
✴He had held the post of bishop
for 21 years, 8 months and 10 days - i.e. he
had been consecrated on 19th October, 536.
1. ✴Totila despised him because his florid complexion
made him look like an alcoholic. However, when he expelled a demon that
was tormenting one of Totila's guards, Totila revered him. (Totila
held Narni for an unknown time during the period 536-52: the account by St
Gregory suggests that St Cassius enjoyed a degree of moral authority during
this occupation).
2. ✴St Cassius usually said Mass every day (as noted
in the Roman Martyrology above). One of his priests prophesied that he
would receive his reward for this when he died, which would happen on the feast
of SS Peter and Paul. He did indeed die after saying Mass on this day,
seven years after the prophecy.
St Gregory recorded
the events leading to the death of St Cassius at greater length in his “Homiliarum in Evangelia” (2:37): interestingly, he
records that St Cassius celebrated thedaily Mass on
the tomb of St Juvenal. There must therefore have
been a chapel over this tomb, which is known to have been close to the what is
now known as the Sacello di San Cassio (see below). There is
circumstantial evidence to suggest that it served as a funerary chapel for the
bishops of Narni. This was almost certainly the site of the grave of St
Cassius and Fausta.
Adalbert I, Margrave of Tuscany destroyed
the funerary chapel when he sacked Narni in 878, after he had participated in
an attack on Rome in an effort to force Pope John VIII to crown Carloman as Holy Roman Emperor. He stole the relics of SS
Juvenal and Cassius and those of Fausta, and took them to San Frediano,
Lucca. These events are recorded in the account of the life of St Cassius
in the “Passionario
Lucchese” (12th century): “Sarcofaga rupta sunt, mausolea fracta, corpora
sanctorum abstracta sunt, vehicula parata”.
John
VIII lifted the excommunication of Adalbert I in November 880 on condition
that he honoured a promise that he had made, and he was given the deadline of
the following March. This promise seems to have involved the return of
the relics of St Juvenal, but not those of St Cassius, to Narni. On
their return, the relics of St Juvenal were apparently buried in the rock
below a new shrine that was built close to the site of his original grave (and
thus of the funerary chapel that had housed the grave of St Cassius).
This shrine was later integrated into the present Duomo. The relics of St Juvenal were
rediscovered here in 1642, and translated in 1649 to the crypt of the church,
below the high altar.
The funerary inscription of St Cassius (above) was
first documented in 1661. At that time, it was in its current location,
above the entrance to the shrine in the Duomo. Until that time, the
veneration of St Cassius (and “St” Fausta) had apparently been largely confined
to churches associated with the Canons of San Frediano, Lucca. In 1679,
when Bishop Ottavio
Avio requested from the Canons the return of
the relics of St Cassius, he probably used the existence of this inscription as
justification. The relics (which comprised: a small bone in a silver urn;
a larger bone; and two sacks containing the ashes of St Cassius) were duly
returned, and placed below a new altar in the shrine in 1680. It was
probably at this point that the shrine became known as theSacello di San Cassio.
The feast of St Cassius is celebrated in Narni on 13th October, the date of the
translation of his relics to Narni.
Miracle of St Cassius
(1680)
This
panel in the Museo Diocesano, Terni, which is attributed
to Girolamo Troppa, depicts a miracle that
happened when the relics of St Cassius were returned to Narni in 1679.
Narni and Terni
UNITED
DIOCESES OF NARNI AND TERNI (NARNIENSIS ET INTERAMNENSIS)
Located in
Central Italy. Narni is the ancient Nequinum of
the Sabines; in 300 and 299 B.C., it was besieged by the Romans, who destroyed
the city and sent there a Latin colony, changing the name to Narnia. Luitprand
captured the town in 726, but Pope Zacharias persuaded him to restore it to the
Duchy of Rome in 742, after which it remained
under pontifical rule. From 1198 to 1214, Narni was in rebellion against Innocent III, who temporarily suppressed its episcopal see. The churches of this city contain
many paintings of the ancient Umbrian school. This town is the birthplace of the
Blessed Lucia of Narni, a tertiary of St. Dominic, who died in 1544, and of the condottiere Erasmo Gattamelata. Narni venerates as
its first bishop the martyr Juvenalis, who died in the second
half of the fourth century; St. Maximus, who was bishop in 425, was succeeded by his two
sons Hercules and Pancratius;St. Gregory the Great refers to the bishop St. Cassius, who died in 558; the
same pontiff wrote a letter to the bishop Projectinus which shows that, at
Narni, at that time, there were still pagans to be converted; Bishop John (940)
was succeeded by his son, who became John XIII; among other bishops were: William, a Franciscan, whom Urban V employed against the Fraticelli
(1367); and Raimondo Castelli (1656), founder of the seminary.
In 1908, the sees of Narni and of Terni were united. Terni is
on the river Nera, at its confluence with the Velino; the magnificent cascade
of the latter is well-known through the noble description by Lord Byron in
"Childe Harold". Terni is the ancient Interamna Nahars of the
Umbrians, and its former splendour is witnessed to by the ruins of an
amphitheatre in the garden of the episcopal palace, a theatre, and baths near
the church of St. Nicholas. The cathedral, and other churches, are built on
the sites of pagantemples. After the Lombard invasion, Terni
belongs to the Duchy of Spoleto, and with the latter, came into the Pontifical States; it was at this town that Pope Zacharias entered into the agreement with King
Luitprand for the restitution of the cities of Bieda, Orte, Bomarzo, and Amelia
to the Duchy of Rome. It is believed that the gospel was
preached at Terni by St. Peregrinus, about the middle of the second century.
The townsmen have great veneration for St. Valentinus, whose basilica is
outside the city, and was, probably, the meeting-place of the first Christians of Terni. There were other martyrs from this city among them, Sts.
Proculus, Ephebus, Apollonius, and the holy virgin Agape. In the time of
Totila, the Bishop of Terni, St. Proculus, was killed
at Bologna, and St. Domnina and ten nuns, her companions, were put to death at Terni itself. After the eighth
century Terni was without a bishopuntil 1217, in which year the diocese was re-established. Among its bishops since that time, were Ludovico
Mazzanco III (1406), who governed the diocese for fifty-two years; Cosmas
Manucci (1625), who gave the high altar to the cathedral, and Francesco Rapaccioli (1646), a cardinal who restore the cathedral. The united sees are immediately dependent upon Rome; they have 57parishes, with 66,600 inhabitants, 3 religious houses of men, and 11 of women.
Sources
CAPPELLETTI, Le Chiese d'Italia, VI; MAGALOTTI, Terniossia l'antica Interamna (Foligno, 1795).
Benigni,
Umberto. "Narni and Terni." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1911. 29 Jun. 2019 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10704a.htm>.
Transcription. This article
was transcribed for New Advent by Lori Gebauer.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort,
S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
San Cassio di Narni Vescovo
m. 558
Martirologio Romano: A Narni in Umbria, san Cassio,
vescovo, che, come riferisce il papa san Gregorio Magno, ogni giorno offriva a
Dio il sacrificio di riconciliazione effondendosi in lacrime e tutto quel che
aveva dava in elemosina; infine, nel giorno in cui si celebra la solennità
degli Apostoli, per la quale tutti gli anni era solito recarsi a Roma, dopo
aver celebrato la Messa nella sua città e distribuito a tutti il corpo di
Cristo, fece ritorno al Signore.
Le notizie più importanti e più sicure intorno a Cassio sono attinte dai
Dialogi di san Gregorio Magno (III, 6; IV, 58) e dalla Homilia in Evang. (II,
37) dello stesso. Assai importante come fonte è, inoltre, l'epitafio di Cassio
(CIL, X, 2, n. 4164), che è tuttora visibile sulla parete esterna della
cappella di San Cassio nel duomo di Narni: nell'epigrafe è Cassio stesso che
parla indicando che, davanti al sepolcro dove egli riposa, giace anche Fausta,
consorte dilettissima della sua vita, e chiedendo per sé e per lei la preghiera
dei visitatori. Per ascendere agli ordini
sacri si era separato dalla moglie, ma i due sposi si erano uniti di nuovo
nella morte. Sull'orlo inferiore della lastra c'è un alfabeto scolpito
contemporaneamente all'epitafio.
Dall'epigrafe apprendiamo che Cassio fu consacrato il 9 ottobre 536 e san Gregorio,
lodandolo, dice che visse ai tempi di Totila. Cassio illustrò la sede
episcopale di Narni nel tempo delle guerre gotiche e fu uno dei vescovi che, in
quel triste periodo di sciagure per l'Italia, attuò con zelo e prudenza le
direttive della Chiesa nel ministero pastorale. San Gregorio racconta che nel
territorio di Narni un portaspada di Totila, posseduto dal demonio, fu liberato
per le preghiere di Cassio.
Per la festa di san Pietro (29 giugno) il santo vescovo soleva recarsi a Roma,
ma, avuta la rivelazione che sarebbe morto in quella occasione, desistette dal
viaggio; tuttavia, la morte lo colse proprio in quel giorno. San Gregorio narrò
al popolo raccolto nella chiesa di San Sebastiano sulla via Appia, come la
profezia si fosse avverata dopo qualche anno. L'iscrizione tombale dice che
morì il 30 giugno 558. Nelle tragiche circostanze del sacco di Narni fu fatta
la traslazione delle reliquie di Cassio e di Giovenale, anch'egli vescovo di
Narni, da quella città a Lucca: intorno all'anno del sacco e della conseguente
traslazione sono state emesse molte ipotesi (Anal. Boll., XLVIII [1930], p.
409).
Contiene la narrazione di questa traslazione un documento forse del sec. IX o X (in MGH,
Scriptores, XXX, pp. 976-83). Cassio è ricordato nel Martirologio Romano al 29
giugno; il suo elogio è stato ripreso dai Dialogi e dall'omelia di san Gregorio
Magno.
Autore: Filippo Caraffa
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/59960
E. WÜSCHER-BECCHI. « THE CHAPEL OF ST. CASSIUS AND THE TOMB OF ST. JUVENAL IN NARNI ». Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und für Kirchengeschichte, ed. A. de Waal and S. Ehses, Rome 1905. Translation © William P. Thayer, 2009 : http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Umbria/Terni/Narni/Narni/churches/Duomo/_Texts/Wuescher-Becchi.html
E. WÜSCHER-BECCHI. « THE CHAPEL OF ST. CASSIUS AND THE TOMB OF ST. JUVENAL IN NARNI ». Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und für Kirchengeschichte, ed. A. de Waal and S. Ehses, Rome 1905. Translation © William P. Thayer, 2009 : http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Umbria/Terni/Narni/Narni/churches/Duomo/_Texts/Wuescher-Becchi.html
