AUXILIARIES, Saints. - This name designates a group of 14 saints to whose intercession the Christian people are accustomed to have recourse in difficult moments: Acacius (May 8), Giles (Sept. 1), Barbara (Dec. 4), Blaise (Feb. 3), Christopher (July 25), Cyriacus (Aug. 8), Dionysius (Oct. 9), Erasmus (June 2), Eustace (Sept. 20), George (Apr. 23), Catherine (Nov. 25), Margaret (July 13), Pantaleon (July 27), Vitus (June 15). In some regions there are variations for certain saints: for example, in place of Dionysius and Erasmus, Nicholas and Leonard are invoked; instead of St. Pantaleon, St. Roch. In the regions of Italy one often finds added the name of a 15th intercessor: St. Magnus, bishop of Oderzo.
The cradle of this devotion seems to have been Germany, from where it then spread to other parts of Europe. It is found indeed in dioceses of northern Germany (Hildesheim, Breslau, Ermland), as well as in Alsace and Lorraine, Luxembourg, Bohemia; but above all in Switzerland, the Tyrol, Austria and Bavaria, where numerous churches and altars dedicated to the A. arose. It also spread in some regions of Italy (Sicily, province of Brescia, Catanzaro). The time when this devotion arose cannot be precisely determined; the first document that mentions it is a letter of the bishop of Passau of 1284. But it was only in the 14th century that it took on a great development. The reason, according to H. Weber, must be attributed to the epidemics that afflicted Europe in that period, especially in the years 1346-49. Blackening of the tongue, drying up of the larynx, acute migraines accompanied by fever, the appearance of buboes on the lower abdomen, loss of consciousness and death often following within the space of a few hours, were the characteristic symptoms of these maladies. In the general desolation that followed, the people began to appeal to the intercession of the A., who had been invoked since more remote times: Christopher and Giles against the plague, Dionysius in migraines, Blaise in ailments of the throat, Catherine in diseases of the tongue, Erasmus in stomach pains, Barbara in fevers, Cyriacus in the assaults of the devil, especially at the point of death, Acacius in the anguish of agony, Eustace in difficult situations.
The thesis is confirmed by the fact that hospitals and annexed chapels were above all dedicated to the A. Among the most celebrated sanctuaries one must remember that of Vierzehnheiligen (Würzburg), built in 1448, rebuilt in 1743-71 on a design by B. Neumann and decorated with frescoes by A. Appiani. Subsequently the object of important restorations, this monumental sanctuary is still today, after Altötting, the most popular destination of pilgrimages in southern Germany.
In the liturgy the cult of these Saints has left its traces with a proper Mass found in ancient missals such as the Missa de XV Adiutoribus pro quacunque necessitate dicenda (1466) in cod. Vat. Palatino 500; other examples in the missals of Bamberg (1490), Mainz (1493), Constance (1504), and Isenheim (1516). In 1618 the Congregation of Rites prohibited it, prescribing the Missa de communi plurimorum martyrum. Later a proper Mass was granted by Leo XIII to the sanctuary of Lichtenfels (1889) and to the church of the Franciscans of Hammelburg (1890). Art too was called upon to express itself in this devotion beloved by the people, with wooden sculptures, paintings and frescoes, altarpieces, etc.
Bibliography6 works
Mario Scaduto