Satyrus of Milan

Satyrus of Milan (* around 331 in Trier , † 378 in Milan ) was a Roman prefect of late antiquity who is venerated as a saint . His feast day is September 17th.

Right nave of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan with the baroque chapel of St. Bartholomew and St. Satyrus with his relics

Life

Satyrus of Milan came from a noble Roman family and was a son of the prefect of Gallia Narbonensis Aurelius Ambrosius. His older sister was the consecrated Virgin and Saint Marcellina of Milan and his younger brother was the Roman politician , Bishop of Milan and Church Father Ambrose .

After the von Trier family moved to Rome , Satyrus trained as a lawyer , became a Roman civil servant and later managed the family's assets. When his brother Ambrose was elected bishop of the Archdiocese of Milan in 374 , Satyrus, who had remained unmarried, resigned from his position as prefect and took over the administration of the archdiocese's secular affairs.

As evidence of his careful work, so his brother Ambrosius reported later, is an event that is said to have occurred in the autumn of 377. A certain Prospero, who had been entrusted with property in Africa, had appropriated an amount of money that was not due to him and did not want to return it. Satyrus, who had found out about this, intervened and was able to clarify the situation about the dispute. All this was nothing new to Satyrus, because he was asked for arbitration even in the event of differences of opinion between his sister Marcellina and his brother Ambrosius, which he apparently succeeded in doing so well that neither of the two remained angry. The harmony between the brothers was so great that Ambrose, when he was mistaken for Satyrus because of his great resemblance to Satyrus, was pleased to receive praise for his brother.

After Satyrus died unexpectedly in Milan in 378, he was praised at the funeral of Ambrose in a funeral speech about the death of his brother Satyrus (lat. De excessu fratris Satyri ); while he said: "But to live forever and without end - that can only be boring and ultimately unbearable" . Satyrus was buried next to the tomb of the martyr Victor in the Basilica Portiana, today's church of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro, which is now an extension of the church of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan .

Facade of the Santa Maria presso San Satiro church in Milan

In honor of Satyrus, Archbishop Archbishop Ansperto Confalonieri da Biassono had a small church built as a central building in the complex of sacred buildings of Santa Maria presso San Satiro .

Web links

Commons : Satyrus of Milan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Satyrus of Milan in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Satyrus of Milan  in the German Digital Library
• San Satiro di Milano fratello e collaboratore di SP Ambrogio (Italian), In: Regio18.blogspot , accessed on August 17, 2019
• Ambrosius' speeches on the death of his brother Satyrus in a Christian implementation of the ancient traditions of praise for the dead and deathly rust, In: Regesta Imperii
• Art. Satyrus, Saint (330–378), In: Regesta Imperii
• Art. Satyrus von Milano, Squarr, Christel (1976), In: Lexikon der Christian Ikonographie Pt. 8 p. Col. 312
• Art. Satyrus, St. († 378), Kötting, Bernhard (1964), In: Lexicon for Theology and Church (2) Pt. 9 p. Sp. 346
• The feast date of St. Satyrus of Milan and the oriental source of the Martyriologium Hieronymianum, Heiming, Odilo (1951), In: Orientalia christiana periodica 17 (1951), pp. 436-448
• About the first funeral speech of St. Ambrosius on the death of his brother Satyrus, Albers, Paul Bruno (1922), In: FS Albert Ehrhard, pp. 24–52
• About the first funeral speech of the h. Ambrosius on the death of his brother Satyrus, Albers, Paul Bruno (1921–1928), In: Bulletin d'ancienne littérature chrétienne latine 1 (1921/28), pp. 173–176

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Satyrus, Joachim Schäfer: Article Satyrus (Satiro), from the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints , accessed on August 17, 2019
2. ↑ ^{a b c} San Satiro Fratello dei Ss. Ambrogio e Marcellina, 17 September (ital.), Author: Emilia Flocchini, In: Santiebeati.it , accessed on August 15, 2019