The Study on the Relics of Sts. Ambrose, Gervasius and Protasius Confirms Tradition

The results of the study will be presented more completely to the public on November 30, 2018, the anniversary of the day St. Ambrose was baptized in 374.

On October 2, 2018, Cristina Cattaneo, the research coordinator, revealed a few details from the results in a press conference in the chapter room of the basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan.

During the conference, Cristina Cattaneo explained that the remains of St. Ambrose that they analyzed were those of a man in good health, about sixty years old, 5-foot-6, with a bad break in his right clavicle that must have caused him great pain and hampered his movements. This confirms what Ambrose himself said in his letters to his sister Marcellina.

The facial study of the skill revealed a marked lack of symmetry under the eye sockets, due to a traumatic event whose nature has yet to be determined.

The study also confirmed, for the first time based on scientific evidence, the resemblance that art history specialists attribute to the portrait of the saint in the mosaic of the San-Vittore in Ciel d’Oro chapel in the basilica of St. Ambrose.

Sts. Gervasius and Protasius

As for the relics of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius, the study reveals congenital defects in the vertebrae, implying a strong consanguinity. And both are young – between 23 and 27 – and over 5-foot-11.

One of them presents the marks of a decapitation and particular damage to the ankles, perhaps due to restraints, and the other defense injuries and rib fractures.

According to Tradition, the two brothers suffered martyrdom in 57, under the Emperor Nero, in Milan. General Astasius was unable to make them sacrifice to the idols and had them tortured. In the end, St. Gervasius fell under the whip and St. Protasius was decapitated after being hung on an easel. Their bodies were buried in a private home. In 386, St. Ambrose, after a vision, found their burial place and transferred the miraculously preserved bodies to the city’s basilica.

Once again, the literary and iconographic traditions, faithfully transmitted from century to century, are substantially corroborated by science: a beautiful lesson of Faith and Hope for our times.