MARTYRS PROTASIUS AND GERVASIUS

The discovery of the relics of the holy martyrs Protasius and Gervasius is of extraordinary significance for the fate of all subsequent Сhristian civilization. Performed by the hands of the great and already famous Father of the Church, Ambrose of Milan, it laid the foundations for the future veneration of saints in the smallest details. Taking place before the eyes of the future greatest Father of the Christian Church in the West, Augustine, who was then preparing for baptism a year later at Easter, it determined his formation as the Doctor of Grace. He wrote about this event in two of his key works, Confessions and The City of God, and dedicated sermons. Shocked by the abundance of obvious miracles during the discovery of the martyrs’ relics, Augustine recounts how a blind man was given sight by touching a cloth that had been placed on the saints’ relics, and many other apocalyptic miracles.

1 In the image of the dogma of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus on the third day, the discovery of the relics of martyrs Protasius and Gervasius took place in three steps. On June 7, 386, Saint Ambrose of Milan ordered excavations to begin on the site of the ancient basilica of Christian martyrs. This is how the bodies of two saints were found. No historical memory of them had been preserved, but the elders claimed that they had heard about them from the ancients, some remembered their names, and others claimed to remember their tombstones that had once existed.

2 Ambrose himself claimed that he ordered the excavations to begin because of a certain presentiment. In turn, his biographer, Deacon Paulinus of Milan, and another great witness to those events, the future bishop and Father of the Church Augustine, wrote that this act was performed by Ambrose by divine revelation.

3 On the twelfth day, June 18, the relics of the saints were transferred to a neighboring sanctuary for an all-night vigil; finally, on the following day, June 19, they were solemnly placed in the basilica, which had just been built by Ambrose himself and was later named after him. This transfer of the relics, attended by a huge crowd, became both the apotheosis of the glorification of the holy martyrs Protasius and Gervasius and the consecration of the basilica itself. As a literal continuation of this liturgical act of the Church Father, in Orthodox worship the consecration of a church is performed by a special solemn episcopal liturgy, a key place in which is occupied by the solemn placement of the relics of the holy martyrs under the altar of the church.

4 In the Orthodox Church, the memory of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius is celebrated on October 27, the presumed day of their birth, that is, their martyrdom. It is possible that they suffered for Christ extremely early, already under the Roman emperor Nero (54–68), but then it is difficult to explain why, more than three centuries later, already under Ambrose, in Milan, somehow, not in the Church, but among the older generation of citizens, their memory was still preserved. Another date is the Great Persecution of Diocletian (303–313). But then it is difficult to understand why, after only half a century, their memory had been almost completely lost, so that the discovery of their relics required the intervention of an extraordinary divine providence in the person of Ambrose.

5 This story, worthy of the attention of a talented contemporary postmodern author who could write truthfully and captivatingly, has come to life again after one and a half millennia. Just as in the fourth century, under Ambrose, the Orthodox Nicene faith in Milan was under terrible pressure and Arian heretics at the imperial court, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Western Church in Italy was oppressed by the secularist movement and revolutionaries who were uniting the future Italian state at the expense of the Church, its authority, and its living space.

6 Ambrose was bishop of Milan from 374 until his death on April 4, 397. His remains were laid to rest in the basilica he had built, together with those of Gervasius and Protasius. Centuries later, the church began to fall into ruin. The then bishop of Milan, Angilbert II (824–859) began restoring the basilica. Around 835 he placed the relics of Ambrose and the holy martyrs in a purple reliquary in the newly built golden altar. They remained there until 1864, when they were rediscovered. In 1871, the reliquary with the relics was opened. The bones of three saints were found inside, and the reliquary itself was two-thirds full of clear water. An examination was carried out, and even the height of Ambrose himself (163 cm) and Gervasius and Protasius (180 and 181 cm, respectively) was established. On May 22, 1874, the relics of the saints were placed in a new, transparent reliquary. 1864-1871-1874 - again three steps and three dates, as an image of faith in the three-day resurrection. It is this shrine that is now known to Orthodox believers, who regularly serve a prayer service before the relics of Ambrose.

7 The symbolic image of the position of the saints’ bodies is also very significant. Just as Ambrose once found the relics of the ancient martyrs and thus saved them from what seemed at that time to be inevitable oblivion, now Saints Protasius and Gervasius, on the right and left sides of Ambrose, like deacons during the liturgical service, guard the repose of their benefactor and hierarch in anticipation of the universal “resurrection of the flesh”, as this dogma is formulated in the ancient Creed of the Holy Apostles.