Aquilinus of Milan, St.
AQUILINUS OF MILAN, ST.
Martyr; b. Würzburg, Germany, c. 970; d. Milan, Italy, c. 1015 (?). There is uncertainty regarding the period during which Aquilinus (Aquilino) lived. He went to Cologne in order to pursue his studies but left when his fellow canons attempted to make him bishop. Leaving Paris for the same reason, he crossed the Alps, stayed a short while at Pavia, and finally joined the canons of the church of S. Lorenzo at Milan. Early in the eleventh century he was martyred because of his outspoken opposition to the spread of Manichaeism. His body rests in a chapel of the church of S. Lorenzo that bears his name and is decorated with 24 scenes from his life. He seems to have enjoyed a continuous cult, and he is honored by the churches of Cologne, Würzburg, and Milan and by the canons of the Lateran. Ancient Breviary lessons, the martyrologies, and the Bollandist critique of the sources all indicate that he was martyred in conflict with arianism and lived probably during the sixth century.
Feast: Jan. 29.
Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Jan. 3:585–586. g. dorio, Memoria sul culto del martire Santo Aquilino (Milan 1856), basic study. g. allmang, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 1147–48. a. wendehorst, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:782.
[n. m. riehle]