:''There is also a beatus named

Calimerius of Montechiaro :''There is also a beatus named Calimerius of Montechiaro (ca. 1430-1521).'' Calimerius ( it, Calimero, Byzantine Greek: ''Καλημέριος'') (died 280 AD) was an early bishop of Milan. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church, Catho ...

(ca. 1430-1521).'' Calimerius ( it, Calimero,

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...

: ''Καλημέριος'') (died 280 AD) was an early

bishop of Milan The Archdiocese of Milan ( it, Arcidiocesi di Milano; la, Archidioecesis Mediolanensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Italy which covers the areas of Milan, Monza, Lecco and Varese. It has lon ...

. He is honoured as a

Saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and his feast day is on July 31.

Life

The only thing known for certain about him was that he was a bishop whose relics were conserved in the Basilica of Saint Calimerius in Milan, after his death. He was probably not a contemporary and disciple of Pope Telesphorus (2nd century), as is often stated, but lived in the third century, with an episcopate of 270–280.

Legends

According to one version his legend, he was born to a noble Roman family, entered military service and reached the rank of officer when he was converted to Christianity by saints

Faustinus and Jovita Saints Jovita and Faustinus were said to be Christian martyrs under Hadrian. Their traditional date of death is 120. They are patron saints of Brescia. Traditional vita Tradition states that they were members of a noble family of Brescia in Lomba ...

. According to another legend, he was born in Greece, and was educated at Rome. He was a disciple of Pope Telesphorus. He succeeded St. Castricianus (''San Castriziano''). He was ordained priest by Castricianus and served at the Basilica Fausta (now the church of Saints Vitalis and Agricola). At the death of Castricianus, he was elected bishop. According to his legend, when he became bishop of Milan, he preached in the region and was killed during the persecutions of Christians by

Commodus Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...

, by being flung headfirst into a well.

Calimerius and the well

Calimerius' relics were exhumed in the eighth century by Bishop Tommaso Grassi of Milan. The urn and the relics were found submerged in water, perhaps due to the many underground channels that ran under the city. However, the fact that his relics were found this way led to the legend that Calimerius was flung into a well. In the eleventh century, the ''Datiana Historia'', written by an anonymous author, states that Calimerius was flung into a well as revenge for having baptized so many pagans. The same source includes the detail that Calimerius was a Greek raised in Rome, as well as the fact that he was a disciple of Telesphorus, although both claims may be historically doubtful. Another legend states that he was a Roman of noble origin, who, after serving in the military, was converted by Saints Faustinus and Jovita and was elected bishop of Milan. The dates on a plaque of marble in the interior of the

Cathedral of Milan Milan Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Milano ; lmo, Domm de Milan ), or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary ( it, Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente, links=no), is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombard ...

state that his episcopate lasted from 139 to 192, but these dates, due to disputes with Rome, may have been falsified in the eleventh century in order to make the diocese of Milan appear to be more ancient than it actually was. Thus, it considered Saint Barnabas of the Apostolic Age as its first bishop in order to become more independent of Rome. As

Hippolyte Delehaye Hippolyte Delehaye, S.J., (19 August 1859 – 1 April 1941) was a Belgian Jesuit who was a hagiographical scholar and an outstanding member of the Society of Bollandists. Biography Born in 1859 in Antwerp, Delehaye joined the Society of Jesus ...

writes, "To have lived amongst the Saviour's immediate following was ... honorable ... and accordingly old patrons of churches were identified with certain persons in the

gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

or who were supposed to have had some part in Christ's life on earth."

, ''The Legends of the Saints'' (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1955), 37.

Veneration

Saint Ennodius Magnus Felix Ennodius (473 or 47417 July 521 AD) was Bishop of Pavia in 514, and a Latin rhetorician and poet. He was one of four Gallo-Roman aristocrats of the fifth to sixth-century whose letters survive in quantity: the others are Sidonius Ap ...

, in an

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

, writes that the basilica of San Calimero was built in the fifth century to hold the relics of Calimerius. The waters of a well said to have been the place of his death acquired special significance. Every July 31, his feast day, the sick would drink of this water. In times of drought, priests would put some of the miraculous water into a bottle and pour it over the fields. There are basilicas dedicated to him at

Pasturo Pasturo ( Valassinese lmo, Pastür) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Lecco in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about north of Lecco. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,798 and an ...

and the Santuario della Madonna di San Calimero is located in Bolladello di Cairate. Image:San Calimero2.jpg, Sanctuary of San Calimero at Bolladello di Cairate Image:IMG 5585 - Milano - San Calimero - Mosaico - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto - 21 febr. 2007.jpg, 19th century mosaic of Calimerius Image:0273 - Milano - San Calimero - Cripta - Il pozzo di S. Calimero - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto 5-May-2007.jpg, The purported well in which Calimerius is said to have been thrown. The water of this well was considered miraculous. Crypt of San Calimero.

References

External links

St. Calimerius

San Calimero e i rimedi contro la siccità
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calimerius 01 Of Milan, Archbishop 3rd-century Christian martyrs Archbishops of Milan 280s deaths Year of birth unknown