ON STS. BASILIDES AND GERONTIUS,
Martyrs mentioned among the Greeks.
CommentaryBasilides, Martyr, reported by the Greeks (Saint)
Gerontius, Martyr, reported by the Greeks (Saint)
D. P.
From the Greek Menaea printed at Venice, and the Synaxarion, in the manuscript of our Pierre-François Chifflet at Dijon, it became known to us that these Saints consummated their martyrdom by the sword, with this distich appended to their commemoration: In the Menaea, and one manuscript.
Σὺν Βασιλίδει Γερόντιος ἐκ ξίφει Γερῶν μετέσχε παμβασιλέως Δόγου.
Together with Basilides as his companion, Gerontius bore off by the sword the reward of the Word that rules all things.
The particular allusion of the second verse to the first, which here is found from the etymology of the names, is not equally easy to express in Latin. Nor is it easy to divine whether these are the same as those who on the 13th or 14th of this month in several manuscript Synaxaria, which we have seen, are mentioned joined to Saint Theodosius or Theodosia. For the Clermont manuscript indeed has them thus on the 14th: whether they are referred elsewhere on the 13th or 14th, "And of the holy Martyrs Theodosius, Basilides, and Gerontius"; but in several others on the preceding day (namely in the Ambrosian signed 148 O fol., and in the double Turin manuscript of the Duke of Savoy) the names are found thus: "Of Theodosia, Basilius, and Gerontius." Content to have indicated this here, and is one of them called Basilius? we reserve Theodosia or Theodosius the Martyr to the 13th day, and to the other companionship, to which he is elsewhere connected. Moreover, on the 13th day Saint Theodosius is joined to Saints Eleutherius the Persian and Zoilus, who suffered under Sapor King of the Persians, where Saints Eleutherius and Theodosius are said after various torments to have been beheaded; which is what we have said here concerning these saints. Whether therefore it could be inferred that these also were crowned under Sapor, since they are joined there to Theodosius? Let others decide it.