Gervasius and Protasius are the proto-martyrs and patrons of Milan. They were brothers. There are two accounts of the time of their death. In one, they died during the persecution of Nero, which began in the year 64. The other relates that in the year 166, the Roman general Astasius came to Milan and issued an order for the arrest of all Christians. The brothers were condemned. Gervasius was beaten to death with leaded whips and Protasius was suspended by his ankles and then beheaded. They were buried on Christian property, upon which was eventually erected the cemeterial church of Sts. Felix and Nabor. In 386, St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, discovered their marked graves under the floor of the church. In 397, he had their bones transferred to the new basilica which is now called San Ambrogio Maggiore. They remain there to this day, now reposing and visible on either side of St. Ambrose behind glass in a large silver reliquary in the crypt of the church.
The same year the relics of these martyrs were discovered, Ambrose brought some of them with him on an official visit to Gaul. In his “History of the Franks”, St. Gregory, Bishop of Tours (c. 594) mentions that their relics were widely distributed in his area and that, according to a letter written by St. Paulinus of Nola, St. Martin of Tours brought some of their relics to his own city, and that Martin’s successor as bishop, St. Eutochius, built a church in their honor and deposited the relics there. There is a great church of St. Gervais et St. Protais in Paris, which was looted of its treasures and turned onto a temple of Reason and Youth during the French Revolution. Napoleon restored it to the Church in 1802, and some of their relics were placed there in 1804.
On October 23, 2018, the results on a scientific study of their relics in Milan confirmed what scriptural and iconographic tradition has unchangingly passed down over the centuries. The remains of St. Ambrose that they analyzed were those of a man in good health, around sixty years old, 5-foot-6, with a bad break in his right clavicle that must have caused him great pain and hampered his movements. This confirms what Ambrose himself wrote in his letters to his sister Marcellina. The facial study revealed a marked lack of symmetry under the eye sockets, due to a traumatic event whose nature has yet to be determined. The study also confirmed the resemblance to the earliest mosaic portrait of Ambrose in existence. As for the relics of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius, the study reveals congenital defects in the vertebrae, implying a strong consanguinity. Both are young – between 23 and 27 – and over 5-foot-11. One of them presents the marks of decapitation and particular damage to the ankles, perhaps due to restraint, and the other defense injuries and rib fractures.
Ambrose (340-397) was governor of Liguria and came to keep the peace during a combative election of the bishop of Milan. The city was torn between Arian and Orthodox Christians, and they each wanted a bishop from their camp. Despite his protests, they elected Ambrose, who was only a catechumen at the time. He turned out to be a great, strong bishop, a celebrated orator, advisor to three emperors, and standard bearer of Nicene Orthodoxy. He defended the rights of the Church from a series of imperial pressures and stood up to the Emperor Theodosius I, threatening to ban him from the church unless he did public penance for the massacre of an entire village. Ambrose was the one who finally so impressed St. Augustine of Hippo that he converted to Christianity and was baptized by Ambrose on Easter of 387. They eventually became two of the greatest Latin fathers of the Church.
This is what we know about the history of the reliquary of Sts. Ambrose, Gervasius, and Protasius, which has just arrived at our Shrine of All Saints. The Holy Roman Emperor Louis II was King of Italy from 844 to 875. In 866, he was successful in leading an army to push the Saracens out of the area between Italy and Sicily. Among the trophies he seized were some Christian shrines, which he shared with Pope Adrian II (d. 872). With the Pope’s consent, he kept some for himself. Among these relics was part of the remains of St. Ambrose. The Pope placed his portion of this relic in the old Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter. The relic came to be referred to as “Ludovik’s (Louis’s) Relic”. Louis II was buried in Sant’Ambrosio in Milan. The relic is next mentioned in the 15th century, when the ancient St. Peter’s was threatening to collapse. While the present St. Peter’s was being built, several treasures and valuables were temporarily transferred the custody other big churches.
There was a reason for the Protestant Reformation, which began during this time. For example, during his career in the Church, Ippolito d’Este was cardinal of five dioceses simultaneously – Esztergom, Milan, Eger, Capua, and Ferrara - without ever being consecrated a bishop. His time as cardinal of Milan (1497-1519) coincided with the moving of the treasures away from from St. Peters. So he seized the opportunity to obtain “Louis’s Relic” of St. Ambrose and brought it to Milan. His successor as Archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Angelo Archimboldi, obtained permission to keep it there.
In 1729, the architect Filippo Juvarra was invited to Milan and did such a good job restoring the Basilica of Sant’Ambrosio that, at a meeting of the city council, the prefecture of Milan, with the archbishop present, decided to award Juvarra with a portion of “Ludovik’s relic”. He took it with him to his home in Messina, Sicily. There it was kept by his descendants. On July 10, 1845, Archbishop Denis-August Affre’ of Paris granted the request of Juvarra’s grandson, who was visiting Paris at the time, and formally certified and sealed the relic into a wooden reliquary. At that time, he included the relics of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius.
Ambrose (340-397) was governor of Liguria and came to keep the peace during a combative election of the bishop of Milan. The city was torn between Arian and Orthodox Christians, and they each wanted a bishop from their camp. Despite his protests, they elected Ambrose, who was only a catechumen at the time. He turned out to be a great, strong bishop, a celebrated orator, advisor to three emperors, and standard bearer of Nicene Orthodoxy. He defended the rights of the Church from a series of imperial pressures and stood up to the Emperor Theodosius I, threatening to ban him from the church unless he did public penance for the massacre of an entire village. Ambrose was the one who finally so impressed St. Augustine of Hippo that he converted to Christianity and was baptized by Ambrose on Easter of 387. They eventually became two of the greatest Latin fathers of the Church.
This is what we know about the history of the reliquary of Sts. Ambrose, Gervasius, and Protasius, which has just arrived at our Shrine of All Saints. The Holy Roman Emperor Louis II was King of Italy from 844 to 875. In 866, he was successful in leading an army to push the Saracens out of the area between Italy and Sicily. Among the trophies he seized were some Christian shrines, which he shared with Pope Adrian II (d. 872). With the Pope’s consent, he kept some for himself. Among these relics was part of the remains of St. Ambrose. The Pope placed his portion of this relic in the old Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter. The relic came to be referred to as “Ludovik’s (Louis’s) Relic”. Louis II was buried in Sant’Ambrosio in Milan. The relic is next mentioned in the 15th century, when the ancient St. Peter’s was threatening to collapse. While the present St. Peter’s was being built, several treasures and valuables were temporarily transferred the custody other big churches.
There was a reason for the Protestant Reformation, which began during this time. For example, during his career in the Church, Ippolito d’Este was cardinal of five dioceses simultaneously – Esztergom, Milan, Eger, Capua, and Ferrara - without ever being consecrated a bishop. His time as cardinal of Milan (1497-1519) coincided with the moving of the treasures away from from St. Peters. So he seized the opportunity to obtain “Louis’s Relic” of St. Ambrose and brought it to Milan. His successor as Archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Angelo Archimboldi, obtained permission to keep it there.
In 1729, the architect Filippo Juvarra was invited to Milan and did such a good job restoring the Basilica of Sant’Ambrosio that, at a meeting of the city council, the prefecture of Milan, with the archbishop present, decided to award Juvarra with a portion of “Ludovik’s relic”. He took it with him to his home in Messina, Sicily. There it was kept by his descendants. On July 10, 1845, Archbishop Denis-August Affre’ of Paris granted the request of Juvarra’s grandson, who was visiting Paris at the time, and formally certified and sealed the relic into a wooden reliquary. At that time, he included the relics of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius.
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On December 28, 1908, the most destructive earthquake in European history struck in Messina and Calabria. In the city of Messina, 75,000 people died, and 91% of the structures were destroyed. The reliquary was considered hopelessly lost for six months, but then it was recovered in a severely damaged state. In 1911, it was brought back to Paris, where it was restored. During World War II, the reliquary was transported to Lipari for preservation from military operations. In 1986, after the abolition of the diocese of Lipari by Pope St. John Paul II, , it was transported to the Cathedral of Messina. In 1999, the reliquary passed into private hands. Between 2012 and 2020, it was sold several times in European auctions. It arrived at our Shrine of All Saints from Krasnodar, Russia, in November of 2021.
Sources of information On Louis II: (“Settipani, C. “La Prehistoire des Capteiens. Premiere partie: Merovingiens, Carolingiens et Robertiens,” illeneuve-d’Ascq., 1993) Next mention of Ludovik’s Relic: (Frommel, Christoph, “Papal Policy: The Planning of Rome during the Renaissance in The Evidence of Art: Images and Meaning in History,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History: journal, Cambridge, 1986). St. Gervais et Protais Church in Paris: (Gagneux, Yves, “Reliques et reliquaries a Paris ( XIXe-XXe siècle)” Cerf: Paris, 2007).
Sources of information On Louis II: (“Settipani, C. “La Prehistoire des Capteiens. Premiere partie: Merovingiens, Carolingiens et Robertiens,” illeneuve-d’Ascq., 1993) Next mention of Ludovik’s Relic: (Frommel, Christoph, “Papal Policy: The Planning of Rome during the Renaissance in The Evidence of Art: Images and Meaning in History,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History: journal, Cambridge, 1986). St. Gervais et Protais Church in Paris: (Gagneux, Yves, “Reliques et reliquaries a Paris ( XIXe-XXe siècle)” Cerf: Paris, 2007).
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