SEXTUS, SAYINGS OF. - A collection of sayings attributed to Sextus.
The author is first mentioned by Origen (Contra Cels., VIII, 30, p. 345, 12, ed. P. Kötschau [CB, 2], and Comm. in Matth., XV, III, p. 354, 19 sg., 25 sg., ed. E. Klostermann [CB, 11]). A Latin translation of 451 sayings was made by Rufinus, who reports a tradition according to which the author of the collection would be the bishop and martyr Sixtus II of Rome (Sixtus II [257-58]). Against this attribution, St. Jerome expressed himself, for whom Sextus is a painter and a pagan (Ep. ad Ctesiphonem, 133, 3: PL 22, 1152; In Jeremiam, IV, 22: ibid., 24, 817 A), though this did not prevent him from approvingly citing two sayings of Sextus (Adv. fovin., I, 49: PL 23, 293 C; In Ezechiel., VI, 18: ibid. 25, 173 C). The sayings of Sextus enjoyed a certain authority in antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the Rule of St. Benedict, chap. 7 (p. 39 and 184, ed. Butler), a saying is cited. The author of the collection was certainly a Christian (probably Egyptian), endowed with a broad understanding even of Greek wisdom, which he probably knew from similar pagan collections. That the author was a member of the Jewish sect of the Essenes is to be excluded. An ascetic tendency is undeniable.
The Roman origin of the place is attested by various finds, such as fragments of mosaics, terracotta elements, coins, and inscriptions. The Réghena River flows through it, and on its western bank the Lombard brothers Erfo, Anto, and Marco, sons of Pietro, Duke of Friuli, and of Piltrude, founded the Benedictine abbey (foundation deed dated 3 May 765). Traces of the Benedictine work to transform the marshy terrain into arable land and reduce the forests, establishing new centers of life, are still visible. From the outset, the abbey was endowed with a rich patrimony and received donations from Charlemagne, Lothar, Berengar, and other princes and faithful; it reached its greatest splendor from the 11th to the 14th century, when it controlled 50 villages and castles scattered throughout Friuli, the marches of Treviso, Verona, Vicenza, Belluno, Ancona, Trieste, and Istria. During the 10th century, together with the bishopric of Concordia, it passed under the feudal dominion of the Patriarch of Aquileia, and like it, from the 13th century it had a voice in the Parliament of the Patria del Friuli, in the group of prelates, and shared its fate. Its life gradually declined until, in 1441, it was given in commendam to Cardinal Pietro Barbo.
Of the ancient monastery, parts of buildings remain, remodeled and adapted as the town hall, rectory, and asylum, and a 15th-century tower serving as the entrance to the monastic enclosure.
MONUMENTS. - Of the Basilica, dating from the second half of the 8th century, various fragments of sculpture are preserved.
Sextus al Réghena, Abbey – Coronation of the Virgin, fresco from the first half of the 14th century. Central apse of the abbey church.
The entire Basilica was decorated with frescoes ranging from the 12th to the 14th century. In the central apse, the Coronation of the Virgin, with scenes of the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the washing of the Child, and below, in niches and quatrefoils, figures and busts of saints; color, line, chiaroscuro effect, and imagery recall Giottesque models with influences from the Bolognese Romagna school (first half of the 14th century). In the high tower, episodes of the Virgin, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, St. Benedict, and St. Scholastica; on the wall of the right nave, next to the presbytery, scenes of St. Peter and St. Paul and the Tree of the Cross, on whose branches are inserted saints of the Church and of the Benedictine Order: frescoes reflecting the taste and characteristics of the Giottesque school.
On the facade wall of the Basilica, the scene of the Three Living and the Three Dead, recalling a similar fresco in the Camposanto of Pisa (early 14th century), and Renaissance frescoes (Ferrarese influences and those of Pellegrino da San Daniele) with SS. Peter and Paul and Thomas. On the right wall of the entrance, Paradise, a grand and luminous fresco attributed to a narrative artist influenced by the Tuscan styles of Benozzo and Fra Angelico (second half of the 15th century); on the opposite wall, Hell, with the drama of the damned in various postures and divided into sectors, recalling Dante’s Inferno; on the facing wall, the Archangel Gabriel, who weighs souls with a balance while other angels introduce them into Paradise; these scenes and compositions evoke the taste and candor of primitive painters. Worthy of mention is the Gothic sculpture of the Annunciation, on a Romanesque-Byzantine scheme (13th century).