Gervasius and Protasius


 * Protasius was also an archbishop of Tarragona (Spain) in 637-646, who assisted to the at the Sixth (638) and Seventh (646) Councils of Toledo. Another Protasius was a bishop of Milan.

Saints Gervasius and Protasius (also Gervase and Protase, and in French Gervais and Protais) were Christian martyrs, probably of the 2nd century.

They are the patron saints of Milan and of haymakers and are invoked for the discovery of thieves. Their feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is 19 June, the day of the translation of the relics; but in the Greek Orthodox Church, 14 October, the supposed day of their death. In Christian iconography their emblems are the scourge, the club and the sword.

The Acts may have been compiled from a letter (Epistle liii) to the bishops of Italy, falsely ascribed to Saint Ambrose. They are written in a very simple style; it has not been possible to establish their age. According to these, Gervasius and Protasius were the twin children of martyrs. Their father Vitalis, a man of consular dignity, suffered martyrdom at Ravenna, possibly under Nero. The mother Valeria died for her faith at Milan. The sons are said to have been scourged and then beheaded, during the reign of Nero, under the presidency of Anubinus or Astasius, and while Caius was Bishop of Milan. Some authors place the martyrdom under Diocletian, but others object to this time, because it is not clear how, in that case, the place of burial, and even the names, could be forgotten by the time of Saint Ambrose, as is stated. It probably occurred during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180).

Saint Ambrose, in 386, had built a magnificent basilica at Milan (the Basilica Sant'Ambrogio). Asked by the people to consecrate it in the same solemn manner as was done in Rome, he promised to do so if he could obtain the necessary relics. In a dream he was shown the place in which such could be found. He ordered excavations to be made in the cemetery church of Saints Nabor and Felix, outside the city, and there found the relics of Saints Gervasius and Protasius. He had them removed to the church of Saint Fausta, and on the next day into the basilica, accompanied in the texts by many miracles ,emblemmatic of divine favour in the context of the great struggle then taking place between Ambrose and the Arian Justina. Of the vision, the subsequent discovery of the relics and the accompanying miracles, Ambrose wrote to his sister Marcellina.

Saint Augustine, not yet baptized, witnessed the facts, and relates them in his "Confessions" (IX, vii), in "De Civitate Dei" (XXII, viii) and in "Sermon 286 in natal. Ss. Mm. Gerv. et Prot.". They are also attested by Saint Paulinus of Nola in his life of Saint Ambrose. The latter died in 397 and by his own wish was buried in his basilica by the side of these martyrs.

In 835, Angilbert II, Bishop of Milan, placed the relics of the three saints in a porphyry sarcophagus, where they were found in January 1864. . Immediately after the discovery of the relics by Saint Ambrose, the cult of Saints Gervasius and Protasius was spread in Italy, and churches were built in their honour at Pavia, Nola and other places. In Gaul we find churches dedicated to them, about 400, at Mans, Rouen and Soissons. At the Louvre there is now a famous picture of the saints by Lesueur (d. 1655), which was formerly in their church at Paris. According to the Liber Pontificalis, Pope Innocent I (402-417) dedicated a church to them at Rome. Later, the name of St. Vitalis, their father, was added to the title. Very early their names were inserted in the Litany of the Saints.

J. Rendel Harris, The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends (London 1903) addressed the subject of twin saints in Christian legend, who seem to be connected with the Dioscuri, whose cult was tenacious, to surmise from an oration decrying their veneration by Dio Chrystostom (Orations 61.11). The historicity of Gervasius and Protasius was defended in Analecta Bollandist. (1904), XXIII, 427.

A famous series of tapestries of the Life of Gervasius and Protasius, donated to the cathedral of Anvers in 1509 is displayed in the cathedral's choir.