20 March 2018

Lentorama 2018: Second String Saints

Day 31: Gervasius and Protasius

These two were twins, sons of martyrs who were martyred themselves by Nero. Or Diocletian. Or Antoninus. It's not clear. They had big hands, apparently. Not much to build a sainthood on.

Jump ahead a couple of centuries, to when St. Ambrose was asked to consecrate a new basilica in Milan, but needed relics to do so. A dream led him to the place where the pair were buried (I'm assuming their skeletons had huge hand bones), and Ambrose brought them back to the basilica to be his relics, and many miracles apparently ensued.

The twins are patron saints of Milan, which may be a problem if, as is rumored, they were moved to Germany after Frederick Barbarossa destroyed the city. Milan denies this happened, but what else would they say?


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