San Nazario

Church Legends.

‘Nazarius is interpreted to mean consecrated or clean or separated or flowering or guarding. In a man, five things are required. Namely: thought, affection, intention, action and speech. A man should be holy in his thoughts clean in affection straight in intention, just in action and moderate in speech.’ All these virtues were present in St Nazarius. He was holy in thought and therefore is called consecrated, clean in his affections and therefore called clean. He was straight in intention and is called separated, for it is the intentions that separate works.’ ‘If the eye is sound, the whole body will be full of light,’ but if the eye is not sound, the whole body will be full of darkness. He was just in action and therefore is called flowering because the just shall blossom as the Lilly. He was moderate in speech and therefore is called guarding because he guarded his ways and sinned not with his tongued.” ‘Celsus like excelcus means exalted and St Celsus lifted himself self above himself, rising above his childhood age by the strength of his spirit. It seems that a philosopher who was devoted to Nazarius wrote this passion and that Ceratius who buried the saints bodies placed the writing at their head.’ ‘Nazarius was the son of a man of high distinction but a Jew, whose name was Africanus and of blessed Perpetua a most Christian woman of the highest Roman Nobility, who had been baptized by Saint Peter the Apostle. As Nazarius grew, he chose the path of his mother and was baptized by Linus who later became the second Pope. His father all the while warning him about the tortures that Christians had to undergo. Emperor Nero in the last year of his reign crucified St., Peter and St., Linus succeeded him. His Parents urged Nazarius to leave Rome for fear he would be arrested for preaching there. Years later he arrived in Piacenza and then on to Milano.’1‘When he heard that fellow proclaimers of the faith Pervasius and Protasius were detained in prison he immediately went to see them. It became known that he was visiting and was soon denounced to the prefect and subsequently, ‘beaten with cudgels, and driven out of the city’. He claimed his by now dead mother appeared to him and consoled him and told him to go to Gaul and he went to the city of Gemmellus. There, a lady brought her son to him and asked that he would teach, baptize and keep him safe.’1. ‘The next day word got out, and both were taken away to jail, hands bound readily to be tortured. After the intervention of the Prefect’s wife, she believed the men were innocent and suggested to her husband that the Gods may be angry if these men were innocent. They were released and told to leave the city and preach no more. Nazarius went on to the city of Trier. Here he converted many to Christ but when Governor Cornelius there heard this he reported to emperor Nero and Nero sent 100 Soldiers to arrest Nazarius again.’ 1. ‘When the soldiers arrived in Trier to arrest him in the new oratory that he had built there, they said the great Nero calls for you. And when they came before Nero, he immediately ordered that they are jailed until he had decided what end for them. Meanwhile, a large pack of wild beasts belonging to Nero broke free and came into where the emperor was and injuring his guests and friends including his own foot. This had caused Nero difficulty in getting away to his palace. After being immobile for days, Nero decided the Gods were angry with him for not dispatching the two sooner. The two were immediately brought before Nero again whipped and cudgeled. When The emperor Nero saw Nazarius’ face shining like a sun, he demanded Nazarius to sacrifice to the gods straight away.

On arrival in the Temple, Nazarius asked all present to leave him alone to pray. When they did as asked, he prayed, and the false idols there crumbled to ash all around him in the temple. An enraged Nero ordered that they are thrown into the sea and if by chance he did not die to throw him into the fires and scatter his ashes around the water. Nazarius and Celsus were put aboard a ship and taken out to sea and thrown overboard. A violent storm broke out immediately, and all in the ship were terrified while around the saints the sea was calm. The crew repented and cried for the wrongs they had done. The Saints walked on the sea back to the ship. The crew professed the Christian faith and Nazarius, and Celsus prayed, and the sea fell calm. The whole chased company landed at a place not far from the city of Genoa.’ Nazarius preached a long time in Genoa, and then proceeded to Milan where he had left Gervasius and Protasius. When the Prefect Anolinus heard of his return, he was exiled again, and Celsus stayed with a Milanese matron. ‘Later when Nazarius reached Rome he found his father very aged and a Christian. He asked his father why had he accepted the Christian faith, ‘Saint Peter appeared to me and told me to follow your wife and son’ he said’. ‘The Temple priests forced Nazarius and Celsus to return to Milan and be brought before the judge, after this meeting they were led outside the Porta Romana to a place called Tre Muri and there they were beheaded. The surrounding Christians there carried his body away for burial in one of their gardens. (was this the transfer to Milan? ) But that night the saints appeared to a Ceratius and asked he bury the bodies deep under his house for fear of Nero. ‘My lords, please cure my daughter first as she is paralyzed’ he implored the visions …the girl was cured immediately. Long afterward the Lord in a dream to St., Ambrose revealed the saints’ burial place. Ambrose had the near-perfect body of Nazario who had a lot of blood and most of his hair along with a sweet perfume as if the saint only died the day before, moved. Ambrose says in his preface; the Holy martyr Nazarius by his merit is ascended into the heavenly realm cleansed by his rosy blood. While he was being subjected to countless torture, he had withstood the tyrant’s fury with unshaken constancy and could not flinch before the persecutors' threats since the real agent of victory Christ himself, fought for him. Ambrose found thee and made thee his perpetual patron and physician, defender of the faith warrior in the sacred strife.

’Mombritius, Sanctuarium, II, fol. 179 v-184 v; Acta SS., Julii, VI, 503-533; Analecta Bollandiana, II (1883), 302-307; Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, II, 881-882; Dufourcq, Etude sur les 'Gesta Martyrum' romains, II (Paris, 1907), 61 sqq. Savio, in Ambrosiana (Milan, 1897); Puricelli, De ss. martyribus Nazario ET Celso, ac Protasio ET Gervasio, Mediolani sub Nerone coesis, deque basilicis in quibus eorum corpora quiescunt (Milan, 1656).