Illuminatus
Acta Sanctorum, May 11
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-11/illuminatus.html
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ON SAINT ILLUMINATUS
OF SEPTEMPEDA IN PICENUM.

[Commentary]

Illuminatus, of Septempeda in Picenum (S.)

G. H.

The tables of the Roman Martyrology conclude
this day XI of May with these words: In Picenum
among the Septempedani S. Illuminatus
Confessor: [The sacred cult,] where Baronius annotates, that his
sacred body religiously is kept, and venerated
among the people of San-Severino, who once Septempedani
were called, in the monastery of S. Marianus. Which thence describes
Philip Cluverius in book 2 of ancient Italy chapter 11,
and confirms the ancient Septempeda now to be called San-Severino,
which was built from the ruins of Septempeda,
which the Goths or Lombards are said to have overturned. The said
moreover monastery of S. Marianus, [The body in the altar,] which once pertained
to the Benedictine monks, now is called the monastery
of S. Catharine, and serves nuns also
of the Order of S. Benedict, where the said body of S. Illuminatus
under the high altar still entire is kept religiously
in a wooden ark, partly gilded partly with various
colors adorned; his cloak very often to be carried
to the sick, at whose contact many are put to flight
infirmities and his feast there solemnly to be venerated
on the V of the Ides of May; hands down Luke Wadding in the Additions
to the first volume of the Minorite Annals no. 3. But John
Baptist Cancellottus, a man of San-Severino himself, in book 4 of the Life
of S. Severinus Bishop of Septempeda chapter 11, treats of S. Illuminatus,
and asserts in the body of S. Illuminatus to be esteemed
a thing of a miracle and mystery worthy, that namely
above the high altar placed his head he has turned
toward the right side, that he might look toward the choir
of the nuns, nor could he in any way
into another position be transferred: whence they gather a sign
of affection, by which his glorious soul from heaven looks at
the nuns there dwelling, in that very manner, by which the body
although lifeless benignly to them turned its face.
These things Cancellottus. For the rest no Life of him is extant, and as
certain they affirm him there to have died, so many contend
also he was born, but of this nothing certain is known. A tradition
some there is that he there served the monks, [whether of the Order of S. Benedict?] and as
a monk Benedictine anciently he is shown to have been painted and
this by Cancellottus from MSS. is brought forth an inscription, Illuminatus,
of D. Benedict a monk, a man was of celebrated sanctity,
and buried in the church of S. Marianus, which was
his monastery. Meanwhile, what we marvel at, is not celebrated
his memory in the Benedictine fasti.

[2] Philip Ferrarius some of him eulogy wrote, but
not without error, while he hands down this S. Illuminatus, [another from him a companion of S. Francis.] of S.
Francis of Assisi a companion and nursling to have been: to whom
he now about to die not only the stigmata, to no one yet
of mortals revealed, but also other secrets very many revealed.
Ferrarius followed Brautius in the Poetic Martyrology.
But that this man at Assisi died and was buried is an ancient
of the Minorites tradition: and him at the V of May relates in
the Franciscan Martyrology Arthur. A similar controversy
was moved at Rome in the year MDCXLIII, between the citizens of S. Severino
and James Laurus: because he in the History of the city of Interamna
wrote S. Illuminatus to have been of Interamna,
and of the family de Castellis, and that his body rests
in the church of S. Francis of the Conventual Minorites
of the said city of S. Severino. But a relation being made besides
of the aforesaid history, and maturely discussed, the most Eminent
and most Reverend Lords Cardinals decreed
the same history to be suspended, until it be corrected.
Which more widely by the said Cancellottus are expounded.
