Saint Nazarius

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For the rhetorician of the same name, see Nazarius; for the Dominican theologian, see John Paul Nazarius

Nazarius (French: Nazaire) was the name of three saints:

1. Saints Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology and that of Bede for 12 June as four Roman martyrs who suffered death under Diocletian. Their names were taken from the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, in the Berne MS.,^[1] where it says: Romæ, via Aurelia miliario V, Basiledis, Tribuli, Nagesi, Magdaletis, Zabini, Aureli, Cirini, Nabori, Nazari, Donatellæ, Secundæ. The second name in the list, Tribulus, is derived from a place-name, Tripoli, as is evident from the Echternach MS., and those following it have also an African origin.

In an ancient itinerary to the graves of the Roman martyrs^[2] mention is made of a mortuary chapel of a martyr Basilides on the Via Aurelia; he is another Roman saint whose feast is on 10 June. The group of three Roman saints, Cyrinus, Nabor, Nazarius, to which was later added Basilides, has in the "Sacramentarium Gelasianum"^[3] its special form of invocation in the Canon of the Mass. The date and the circumstances of the deaths of these Roman martyrs are unknown.

The bones of Saints Nazarius and Nabor were transferred by Bishop Chrodegang of Metz to his diocese.^[4]

(For the later cultus of Nazarius, see also Lorsch Abbey).

1. ↑  ed. De Rossi-Duschesne, Acta SS., Nov. II [77]
2. ↑  De Rossi, "Roma Sotterranea", I, 183
3. ↑  ed. Wilson, Oxford, 1894, 174-5
4. ↑  Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Script., II 268.

2. Saint Nazarius was the fourteenth abbot of the monastery of Lérins, probably sometime during the reign of the Merovingian Clotaire II (584-629). He successfully attacked the remnants of paganism on the southern coast of France, overthrew a sanctuary of Venus near Cannes, and founded on its site a convent for women, which was destroyed by the Saracens in the 8th century. His name is inscribed on the calendar of saints of the French Church, on 18 November.

3. Saints Nazarius and Celsus were two martyrs of whom nothing is known except the discovery of their bodies by Saint Ambrose. According to the Vita Ambrosii of Paulinus, Ambrose, at some time within the last three years of his life, after the death of the Emperor Theodosius (d. 395), discovered in a garden outside the walls of Milan the body of Saint Nazarius, with severed head and still stained with blood, and had it carried to the Basilica of the Apostles. In the same garden Ambrose likewise discovered the body of Saint Celsus, which he had transported to the same place. Obviously a tradition regarding these martyrs was extant in the Christian community of Milan which led to the finding of the two bodies.

A later legend, without historical foundation, places the martyrdom of these witnesses to the faith during the persecution of Nero, and describes with many details the supposed journeyings of Saint Nazarius through Gaul and Italy. He is also brought into relation with the two martyrs Gervasius and Protasius. Paulinus says distinctly that the date on which Nazarius suffered martyrdom is unknown.

The discourse eulogizing the two saints which has been attributed to Saint Ambrose (Sermo lv, in Patrologia Latina, XVII, 715 sqq.), is not genuine. Saint Paulinus of Nola speaks in praise of Saint Nazarius in his Poema xxvii (Patrologia Latina, LXI, 658). A magnificent silver reliquary with interesting figures, dating from the 4th century, was found in the church of San Nazaro in Milan (Venturi, "Storia dell' arte italiana", I, Milan, 1901, fig. 445-49).

The feast of the two martyrs, with that of Saints Victor and Innocent, is on 28 July.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.