A Warrior's Faith: The Miraculous Journey of a Roman Legionary
All my walks begin with curiosities that I find in books or documents. This story began with the relics of the cathedral of Ivrea.
Visiting the cathedral of Ivrea I discovered that in its crypt, in a Roman sarcophagus adapted for this purpose, were the relics of a saint I had never heard of before: Saint Bessus. The saint was so highly esteemed that the pilgrims who arrived in Ivrea all wanted to draw inspiration from approaching the remains of that holy man.
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For this reason, a balcony was created around the crypt (which did not yet have a ceiling) and pilgrims could walk around the sarcophagus underneath.
I wrote some words about it in my article A Warlord In The Cathedral
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Who was Saint Bessus?
Northern Italy and in particular Piedmont and Valle D'Aosta have numerous churches dedicated to Christian soldier martyrs.
It is said that there was a legion, Thebes, which was composed of Christians. At a certain point, the legion began to refuse to carry out the orders of the emperor. Some say the order was to kill Christians. Others say that before the battle, the emperor said that all soldiers must perform pagan rites and Thebes legion refused this order.
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The angry emperor orders other legions to kill all these soldiers. Almost 7 thousand soldiers (6600). Well, we know that the Romans were capable of such gestures. We remember the 10,000 Samnites brought to Rome and killed all of them. But those were enemies hated to the point of no more.
Even though scientists say they have found evidence that the Thebes Legion existed and that they did indeed find the remains of slain soldiers on the field, I still have a couple of questions.
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1/ Everyone knows that the Romans were very tolerant towards other religions, and it was such a serious unbearability. Especially in the army.
2/ How do you imagine this situation: before a battle a commander orders to kill 6600 expert soldiers. And these expert soldiers wait like a herd at the slaughterhouse to be killed one after the other? I can’t imagine it. I think Romans were not such stupid.
By the way, there are 400 soldiers recognized as martyrs of this legion.
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Saint Bessus wanders through the mountains
Some legionnaires managed to escape and the emperor sent troops to find and kill them. One of them was Saint Bessus.
Dressed as a shepherd or beggar, he lives in the Alps and tells the mountaineers about Jesus Christ. In addition, he can perform miracles and see the future. For this reason, the mountaineers love him.
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One day, two shepherds invite him for dinner to make friends with such an esteemed man. The dinner is very rich: milk, wine, meat. But Saint Bessus sees that the sheep that the shepherds have cooked for him was stolen. He refuses to eat and begins the sermon. The shepherds, offended, tie him like a sausage (it is written exactly like that), take him to the rocky spur, and throw him down.
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At this point, there are two variations (or rather three) of how things went.
1/ Saint Bessus is dead and in the church under the mountain, there is his handprint on the spot where he had fallen.
2/ Since he was a saint, he had not died, he had gotten up and started praying. At the same time, near this rock, there were the soldiers sent by the emperor to kill the fugitives. They were ready to eat, but after hearing the noise, they came to check what had happened. Not believing their eyes, they caught and killed him.
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If you sometimes think you don't have much luck, remember the poor Saint Bessus.
3/ Saint Bessus had not only survived the fall, but had also escaped (he was also a saint) and lived for a long time in other villages in the mountains. After his death, his remains continued to perform miracles and were then transferred to Ivrea to demonstrate the power of the church.
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