For a better understanding of the title of my book ‘Le Ossa dei Caprotti’ read also the events surrounding it:
- San Bernardo to the bones
- le Ossa dei Caprotti, the Caprotti family’s tomb, act one, 1997
- Le Ossa dei Caprotti and the bones: “Le Caprotti family tomb, act two: high and straight”, 2009
- the family chapel
“In the history of the family (…) first came the factory and then the villa, purchased in 1893 by the Airoldi, Dukes of Cruyllas, to witness the Caprotti family’s change in status. (…) the villa in Albiate was a powerful symbol, because the Airoldis were a prominent family. Their archive was sold together with the mansion and is still today a kind of treasure chest of their noble heritage (…). Between the middle of the 17th century and the following century as many as four different Airoldi occupied the position of Treasurer General of the State and the Army of Milan, the only members of the same family to hold such an important position for so long and practically by inheritance. Another testimony to their prominence can be found in the small chapel right next to the house, where the entire skeleton of San Valerio is kept in a glass case (…). ”
“The skeleton of san Valerio was donated by a pope to Carlo Francesco Airoldi, archbishop of Edessa, for services rendered as apostolic nuncio from 1668 first in Flanders, then in Florence, and finally in Venice. The deed of gift has not been found but on the basis of other documents it can be established that the great privilege was granted around 1670, thus by Clement ix or Clement x. At that time, popes used to donate relics of saints to those who had particularly distinguished themselves in the service of the Holy See and the importance of the recognition could be judged by the size of the relic itself. It could have been a fingernail, a lock of hair, a bone: to receive the entire body of a saint, Monsignor Airoldi must have gone to a lot of trouble. (…)’ (pp. 17-18).
The Valerio of Albiate is a so-called “holy body”, that is, one of the bodies “taken from ancient cemeteries and placed in veneration as c[orps] of previously unknown martyrs”. The phenomenon had an upsurge precisely in the 17th century, when the catacombs of Rome were rediscovered and the first thing people did was to search in them for the bodies of martyrs they believed to be full of. He is also a ‘renamed’ saint: found anonymous in the tomb, according to papal determinations he was given an appellative name to recall his sacrifice for God, his merit, his reward. From the many (Justus, Candidus, Adeodatus, Victor, Felix, Fortress, etc.) Valerius was chosen.
In the martyrologies, books containing the lives and acts of Christian martyrs, the Church records several saints named Valerius. The relics preserved in the oratory of the same name in Albiate are said to belong to a San Valerio who was martyred in Africa with Saint Rufinus at the time of the great anti-Christian persecutions (3rd-4th century AD), and whose name day is placed, with that of his companion, on 16 November.
In order to worthily welcome the homage paid to him personally and to his family, Archbishop Airoldi had the oratory dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin Mary annexed to the family property in Albiate (now in the province of Brianza), located opposite the entrance to the residential Villa San Valerio, restored and enlarged, and had it named after San Valerio. Even today, the Saint’s body and other relics are placed on the altar of the oratory.
Basic Bibliography:
A. CANICI, entry on BODY SAINTS in Enciclopedia cattolica, vol. IV, Vatican City, 1950, pp. 586-87;
M. BOLDETTI, Osservazioni sopra i Cimiterj de’ santi Martiri ed antichi cristiani di Roma, aggiuntavi la serie di tutti quelli che fino al presente si sono scoperti, e di altri simili, che in varie parti del mondo si trovano, con riflessioni pratiche sopra il culto delle sagre reliquie, Roma, 1720, LIb. I, chap. XXIII, p. 109
https://www.giuseppecaprotti.it/caprotti-dynasty-segreti-e-liti/
References in www.giuseppecaprotti.it :
E. SÀITA, San Valerio Protomartyr of Africa, in Albiate, 18/12/2022 ( with reference to other articles on the site, https://www.giuseppecaprotti.it/san-valerio-protomartire-dafrica-ad-albiate/ ).
