James the Deacon
Acta Sanctorum, May 4
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-04/james-the-deacon.html
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ON S. JAMES THE DEACON,

MARTYR AT BERGAMO IN ITALY.

A.D. CCCLXXX

[Commentary]

James the Deacon, Martyr, at Bergamo in Italy (S.)

G. H.

The proper Offices of the Saints of the Church of Bergamo
we have, by Sixtus V the Pontiff in the year MD
LXXXVII approved, and at Bergamo in the year MDCX
printed, and again with new faculty reprinted
at Rome in the typography of the Apostolic Chamber
in the year MDCXIV. In these is prescribed the feast of S. James the Martyr, under a double rite to be celebrated, with these at the Matins'
second Nocturn to be recited Lessons.

[2] James the Martyr, at Bergamo of noble parents
born, and in the liberal disciplines instructed, with affability
and the charm of his speech, [Eulogy from the breviary.] before the faith of Christ
he received, to all amiable and pleasant was. Wherefore
him God's benignity long in the error of infidelity
to remain wished not. For when once a Presbyter,
in an assembly of Christians on the truth of the faith and the false
cult of idols disputing, he had heard; with the Christian
religion's desire inflamed, to Christ his name gave.
By the Sacrament of Baptism then initiated, so much in
Christian piety he advanced, that to the Clergy of the Church inscribed, of the Archdeaconate's honor he was deemed worthy. At that
time when the Arian heresy widely its venom diffused, and at Bergamo to forty of the chief
Clerics in the church butchered had been; James, by the brethren's
slaying not at all terrified, but to them himself as a most firm
wall opposing, both privately and publicly the Catholic
faith with the sacred Scripture's and the Fathers' testimonies confirmed. By which defenses not only the Catholics
in the faith he retained, but also many heretics from
the Arians' deceits to the Church recalled: which thing
their hatred the more against him stirred. And so a conspiracy
against him made, James in the temple and pulpit
to the people preaching the head with a cast javelin
they wound: and soon by them thence cast headlong, and with knotty cudgels bruised, with martyrdom is crowned, on the fourth
Nones of May in the year of Salvation three hundred eighty.
His body the Catholics honorably with psalms and
hymns in S. Alexander's basilica buried: where with many
miracles to the Catholic faith's confirmation day by day
he is illustrated.

[3] Thus far the Ecclesiastical Lessons: to which another monument of antiquity
we adjoin, an epitaph at his
tomb once placed, and by Ferdinand Ughelli volume 4
of Italia sacra in the Bishops of Bergamo printed with these words.
Here rests B. M. James, [Epitaph,] Cleric and Deacon
of Bergamo, who Christ preaching, for the hard of the impious
heresy chastisement, by the Arian crowd with cudgels
struck, from the pulpit cast out, a Martyr is made on the IV Nones
of May, in the year of human Salvation CCCLXXX and of his Deaconate
the XX year, and of the impious Valens of the Catholics
persecutor the XIII: and in the sacred Cathedral of D. Alexander
church he is laid. Is venerated S. Alexander the Martyr, the chief
Patron of the people of Bergamo, on the day XXVI of August. The year
of Valens the Emperor in the Epitaph placed, better in the Lessons
omitted is, because he two years before was in battle
against the Goths slain.

[4] A third testimony we bring forth from the Vineyard of Bergamo,
by Bartholomew de Peregrinis, Presbyter and citizen of Bergamo, [and the Vineyard of Barthol. de Peregrinis.]
in the year MDXLV written: in whose part 1 chapter 8
these are handed down: This thereupon vineyard, for years two and
fifty and more, remained without a cultivator Bishop,
on account of the persecutions of the infidels. There followed
moreover B. James, Archdeacon and Canon, who
when before of this Vineyard a destroyer he was, was made
a most brave defender and faithful cultivator. And the Bergamo
Church most holily for years twenty governing,
those forty Clerics of Bergamo, the church
to D. Alexander dedicated guarding, into the pristine
regular and Apostolic life he restored, who afterward
together all by the heretical Arians were slain. But this
James, on account of this not at all terrified, against
the Arians themselves constantly contended, and at length for
the faith of Christ cruelly was slain, in the year of human
Salvation CCCLXXX on the fourth of May, and in the same church by
the Catholic Christians was laid. These things from the book
third of the Chronicles of Lord John Maria of Milan
Canon Regular. Which also in the book
third on the Antiquities and deeds of the Saints of Bergamo
the history is had. Thus there.

[5] Thus far of the more ancient writers the fountains I have shown, from
which others their rivulets derived: and such may be reckoned
M. Antony Benalius, in his on the Life and deeds of the Saints of Bergamo Commentaries, which John Antony Guarnerius
the Canon polished, augmented and edited in the year MD
LXXXIV. Where of S. James the Martyr the Life is, after the manner of an Oration
Panegyric largely deduced: but to the history nothing is produced,
which is not sufficiently accurately in the already given monuments set forth. In a like almost manner in Italian edited Marius Mutius
in the History of the Saints of Bergamo in the year MDCX, and
MDCXXI printed; and Cælestinus of Bergamo, Presbyter Capuchin
part 2 of the quadripartite History of Bergamo, in volume
2: where near the end he adds, [The body translated in the year 1219.] that the burial of S. James from the memory
of men had fallen, and the sacred body a long time
was hidden, which at length in the year MCCXC was revealed,
and with three other bodies found.
Presided then over the Church of Bergamo Robert Bungus
the Bishop, who to the honor of the four Saints in
the Cathedral church an altar erected, and in it the four
bodies deposited. Seems Galesinius to this translation
to have looked, while in his Martyrology, from the Annals and
tables of Bergamo, on the day XXVI of April these things he writes:
At Bergamo the translation of the holy Martyrs Projectus
and James. Of these Projectus by others Projectitius the Martyr
is venerated on August XVII.

[6] Finally when in the year MDLXI the church of S. Alexander
was destroyed, the Clergy with the Relics of the Saints, [and again in the year 1561,] among which also
of S. James were, migrated into the church of S. Vincent, which
even now Cathedral persists. Moves a scruple Cælestinus,
as though wrongly in his age, above is reported S. James from the false
cult of idols to the Christian religion converted, as if at that
time Paganism had been extinguished. There is in the same Alpine
dominion with this diocese of Bergamo the Trentine territory,
in which in the year CCCXCVII by the Pagans were slain SS.
Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, whose illustrious
Acts we give on May XXIX. They remembered S. James the Martyr
Ferrarius in the general Catalogue and another of the Saints
of Italy, Nicolaus Brautius in the Poetic Martyrology, Ughelli
in the Description of the city of Bergamo, where S. James butchered
in the year CCCLXXXIV he writes. [the time of the slaying.]

[7] Indeed I know not on what foundations such
a chronology relies, by which after Julian the Apostate's slaying,
so much of audacity to have been to the Arians in Italy is believed, that
under the most pious and most Christian Emperors Valentinian
(for Valens his brother an Arian only the East's
churches troubled) Gratian, Theodosius, of this kind,
a crime they are believed in the church to have perpetrated. If any such thing under
Constantius were said done about the time of the Milanese conventicle,
and the year CCCLVI, much more verisimilarly it would appear.
Yet nothing to change I wished: for since the impious Constantius
to the churches everywhere all Arian Bishops took care to be set over,
could the Arians' faction, while lived they, still
strong have been, even many after his decease years; and
whom on the people of Bergamo he himself had imposed, to the year CCCLXXX
or even CCCLXXXV life to have prolonged. Thus in the year CCC
LXXIII, dead at Milan Auxentius, that there was a tumult
about the election of a successor we know, the Arians striving, that
someone of their party be elected.
