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Saint Vibiana
At the very time when California's soil was yielding up its richest deposits of gold to anxious prospectors, a treasure of quite another kind was unearthed in a subterranean canyon of faraway Rome.
Painting of St. Vibiana in Mission Santa Ines.Early in 1851, Pope Pius IX had purchased a vineyard on the outskirts of Rome directly above an extensive network of catacombs that had gone unexplored for almost a thousand years. Excavation of the area was entrusted by the Holy Father to the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, which, at that time was under the direction of the famous Giovanni Battista de Rossi.
Late in 1853, excavations were made in the vast necropolis of Pretextanis, to the left of the Appian Way in that portion of the catacombs known as San Sisto. In the locality of Bonfiglioli, about a mile from the Porta di San Sebastian, workmen discovered an ancient entrance to the cemetery in almost complete ruin. On December 9, a vault was unearthed containing a number of vials filled with aromatic spices, along with quite a few marble tablets with discernable epitaphs. Among the unbroken sepulchres was that of a certain "Vibiana." To the left and adjoining her tomb was a rose-colored crystal vase purportedly containing dried blood.
The process of her canonization may have been quick, in accordance with the discipline of the ancient church, yet her name and fame were blotted out of the memory of men until God's own time for revealing her existence had appeared.
An inscribed marble tablet, seventy centimeters long and thirty wide, sealed the sepulchre. The plaque was unbroken, although cracked in several places. When workmen attempted to remove the tablet, the arch, weakened by the excavations, collapsed and partially buried the tomb. After the debris had been cleared away, they uncovered the skeleton of a young woman, apparently put to death in a violent fashion. The date of the maidens demise, as well as other information about her person, could not be determined. However, from surrounding epitaphs archeologists conjectured that the youthful person had lived in the third century. The inscription read: Animae innocenti, adque pudicae Vibiane in pace D. Pr. K. St. (to the soul of the innocent and pure Vibiana, laid away the day before the kalends of September [August 31]). At the end of the inscription was a a wreath of laurel, a character similar to the letter "Q" with foliate ornaments, an emblem commonly used by early Christians as a code symbolizing martyrdom.
After the relics had been carefully removed from the catacombs, Pope Pius IX ordered a hurried investigation to ascertain whether the designation "virgin and martyr" could he applied to the newly-discovered Vibiana. Within a few weeks, a favorable decision was reached and "equivalent canonization" was bestowed on the third-century witness to the Faith.
In February 1854, shortly after their authentic character had been officially established, "the precious relics of the illustrious Virgin and glorious Martyr" were exposed for public veneration. As one writer put it:
The process of her canonization may have been quick, in accordance with the discipline of the ancient church, yet her name and fame were blotted out of the memory of men until God's own time for revealing her existence had appeared. There is no record of her life and martyrdom in the hooks in which such records are kept. The book of the Acts of the Martyrs is silent about her. The tablet which lay near her resting place, and the phial of blood are the mute witnesses of her existence and sanctity.
Public enthusiasm for the recently "proclaimed" virgin and
martyr was manifested not only in the Eternal City, but in adjacent areas
as well. A number of prominent ecclesiastics unsuccessfully petitioned
the pope for custody of the relics. It remained for the freshly consecrated
Bishop of
Monterey to win the privilege, almost without asking. When Thaddeus Amat
was received by the Holy Father, on March 18, 1854, the pontiff conferred
the precious relics of Saint Vibiana on Monterey's new ordinary with
the express stipulation that a cathedral be erected in her honor.
The authentic document by which the Holy Fathers Vicar General entrusted the relics to the prelate noted that the Pope was giving to:
The Most Illustrious Bishop of Monterey Thaddeus Amat, the body of the maiden, Saint Vibiana, unearthed by mandate of Pius IX on December 9, 1853, from the Cemetery of Pretestato (San Sisto) along with a vial of her blood and also a marble slab bearing the inscription to the soul 'of the innocent and pure Vibiana, laid away the day before the Kalends of September.' We hereby affix to the wooden container our engraved testimonial, a chaplet of red colored silk which is attached to our seal.
After securely packing the relics in wooden crates, Bishop Amat and his traveling companions left for the United States. They sailed from Havre on May 19, and, after a routine three week crossing, arrived safely in New York. In mid-October, the prelate sailed aboard the Aspinwall for Colon City, on Limon Bay, in north central Panama. The voyage to the isthmus was remarkably calm and there was 'not even a white cap on the waters." Transferring to the Pacific Mail Company's steamship, John C. Stephens, the parts left Panama on November I and, two weeks later, reached San Francisco.
After a short stay in the Bay City Bishop Amat set out for Monterey. He then continued south on the coasting schooner Powhattan According to one account, barely had the ship "reached the high seas when it seemed as though all the furies of the lower world had conspired to prevent the sacred relic from entering the diocese in which it was destined to he enshrined." Violent gales tossed the little vessel constantly, hut in spite of the angry waters, the Powhattan arrived safely at Santa Barbara on December 2. The following Tuesday, Feast of Santa Barbara, the relics, encased in their artistically-designed reliquary with a golden crown, were borne in solemn procession to the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows where a special shrine had been prepared to the right of the main altar. The local newspaper taking note of the ceremonies, hoped that the relics night "possess a miraculous influence, in which case that town will become a resort."
On March 28, 1856 Pope Pius IX granted the privilege of a special feast for Saint Vibiana in the Diocese of Monterey and declared the "virgin and martyr" principal patroness of the southland's ecclesiastical jurisdication.
—From Century of Fulfillment: The Roman Catholic Church in Southern California 1840-1947 by Msgr. Francis Weber, Archdiocesan Archivist
The body of St. Vibiana is entombed in the crypt of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
