CROMAZIO, saint. — He belonged to the clergy of Aquileia as a priest under Bishop Valerian (369–388), and together with Eliodorus, later bishop of Altinum, was on intimate terms with s. Girolamo during the sojourn which the latter made in that city in 370–73; during those years he was also on excellent terms with Rufinus. Toward the end of 388 or at the beginning of 389, he was elected Valerian’s successor in the presence of s. Ambrogio, with whom he remained in contact. He also declared himself, in a letter, a defender of the cause of s. Giovanni Crisostomo. S. Girolamo dedicated to him some of his commentaries and translations of the books of the Old Testament, also recalling the financial assistance he received from him. At his urging, Rufinus undertook the translation of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History and its continuation. He died around 407–408. Feast day, 2 December. The compiler of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum dedicated his work to him and Eliodorus. Two letters attributed to him in this connection are spurious.
There remain from him 18 treatises, or rather homilies, on the Gospel of s. Matteo, of which the one on the eight beatitudes (a homily preached on a day of a great market) was particularly esteemed; the others include: Mt. 3, 13–17; 5; 6, 1–24, and appear to be homiletic fragments on the whole of that Gospel. They were published at Udine by Canon Pietro Braida in 1816 and again in 1823 (PL 20, 323–68 reproduces the 1816 edition); a third edition, with translation, appeared at Udine in 1828. Pietro de Puniet, with sound arguments, attributed to C. one of the three homilies preserved in the Gelasian Sacramentary, specifically the one assigned for the traditio of the Pater Noster in the scrutinies preceding solemn Baptism.
