Meliton

ON ST. MELITON, BISHOP,

FIRST OR SECOND CENTURY.

Meliton, Bishop, whether in Sardinia or at Sardis in Asia (Saint)

BY G. H.

Ferrarius, in his General Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, produces on the first day of April two Holy Bishops named Meliton: one of Sardis in Asia; the other of Sulci in Sardinia. Peter Halloix published the life and writings of the former, in volume 2 of the Illustrious Writers of the Eastern Church who flourished in the second century, Martyrologies concerning Saint Meliton the Bishop, and in chapter 5 relates that he is inscribed in the Martyrologies on the Kalends of April; and in the margin notes the Martyrology of Maurolycus. We have two Venetian editions of this Martyrology, in which only these words are had: "In Sardinia of Meliton the Prelate." Which are read translated in the same manner into Italian in Constantius Felicius. The same, only with the title "Blessed" added, are read in a manuscript Usuard found at Chambéry among the Conventuals, and in another described at Cologne among the Carmelites, and in the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum. Greven in his supplement to Usuard, published at Cologne in 1515 and 1521, has this: "In Sardinia of Blessed Meliton, Bishop and Confessor." Which from there, in Sardinia; with the title "Saint," were transferred into the German Martyrology of Canisius. Besides, the manuscript Martyrologies Brussels of Saint Gudula, Centulensis, the double Paris manuscript of Saint Germain des Prés, likewise Lobiensis under the name of Ado, Liège of Saint Laurence, Tarouanensis, and a certain one of Queen of Sweden, then one of ours very ancient, and another published in 1490 at Cologne and Lübeck, have this in the same way: "In Sardinia of Blessed Meliton Bishop, whose acts are held most celebrated among men." Thus far various Martyrologies, in all which Sardinia, nowhere the city of Sardis in Asia, is found, unless perhaps (because the city of Sardis in Asia is less commonly known) the more famous Sardinia has crept in. We treat of both here, leaving the further decision to others.

[2] Ferrarius asserts that he has from the records and monuments of the Sulcitan church a testimony of this kind: "At Sulci in Sardinia of Meliton, Bishop and Martyr." Strabo, treating of Sardinia in Book 5, writes thus of that city: Πόλεις δ᾽ εἰσὶ μὲν πλείους, ἀξιόλογοι δὲ Κάραλις καὶ Σοῦλχοι, whether of the city of Sulci? "The cities in it are many, but the more noteworthy are Caralis and Sulci": which two, the most ancient of the cities of that island, Mela calls them in Book 2, chapter 7. In the epitome of Stephanus this is read: Σύλκοι πόλις ἐν Σάρδοις, Καρχηδονίων κτίσμα, "Sulci, a city in Sardinia, founded by the Carthaginians." So also Claudian in De Bello Gildonico:

A part of them went to Sulci, led thence from ancient Carthage.

Ptolemy describes the site of this city thus, Book 3, chapter 3: "Description of the southern side: the city Pupulum, the town Sulci with its port, Peninsula," etc. The city is destroyed, and its place from its situation and a certain similarity of name is gathered to be called Palma di Solo. To it succeeded in episcopal dignity Villa or Valle-Ecclesiae, lying at thirty Roman miles toward Caralis. In the Notice of the Bishops who by order of King Huneric came to Carthage to render account of their faith, is read Vitalis, Bishop of Sulci. But most celebrated is held Saint Antiochus the Bishop, who suffered under the Emperor Hadrian on December 13, from whom the neighboring island is called Sant'Antioco.

[3] The first Bishop of this see is set down as Saint Meliton, a disciple of Saint Boniface, the first Bishop of Cagliari. Saint Boniface is said to be venerated on December 28, concerning whom from a certain manuscript codex Dionysius Bonfant, in his Triumph of the Saints of Sardinia, published an elogium, Book 1, chapter 10, of which we give this portion: "Saint Boniface Martyr, Christ's disciple, Bishop of Cagliari ordained by Saint Peter: Saint Meliton is reported to be a disciple of Saint Boniface of Cagliari, where he confirmed the preaching of the Gospel by the greatness of miracles. Afterward, the See of Cagliari being established, turning his eyes to the other parts of Sardinia, that the preaching of the Gospel might shine upon all, he sent the disciples he had into various places, and especially Saint Meliton to the city of Sulci, a colony of Greeks and Romans, where he taught and performed wonderful things; and thus through the whole island the faith of Christ was spread." The same Bonfant, in Book 3, chapter 37, delivers this: "Saint Meliton was born at Cagliari: ordained Bishop by him, and having been converted to the faith of Christ and baptized, he so holily ordered his life that he was judged worthy by Saint Boniface of the priesthood and of the Sulcitan episcopate: in which he nourished his subjects with the food of salutary doctrine, and watered them with the examples of virtues, to the great profit and utility of his church. At length, having lived to a long old age, and to have died a Martyr. for the faith of Christ which he preached, he was beheaded, and received the reward of eternal beatitude." Saint Boniface is said to have been struck with the axe in the persecution of Nero; by whom if Saint Meliton had not long before been given as bishop to the Sulcitans, he could easily have lived to the times of Domitian. This from the Sardinians concerning their Meliton, which we would wish confirmed by more certain monuments.

[4] To these we subjoin a few things concerning the other Meliton, Bishop of Sardis, of which city Stephanus has this: Σάρδις πόλις Λυδίας, ὁ πολίτης Σαρδιανὸς, Meliton Bishop of Sardis in Asia: τὸ κτητικὸν Σαρδιανικός. "Sardis, a city of Lydia. A citizen is called Sardianus; the possessive is Sardianicus." From these scarcely differ both the name of the island of which we have treated above, called by the Greeks Σαρδὼ and Σάρδὼν; and the appellatives derived from them, which are Σαρδῶος, Σαρδώνιος, and Σαρδωνικός in the same Stephanus under Cities; and in Latin Sardus, Sardensis, Sardonius, and Sardonicus. Sardis is the Metropolis of Lydia, and was once the royal seat of Croesus, as Horace has it in Epistle 1, one of the seven Churches of Asia to which Saint John wrote in the Apocalypse: but Meliton was not then bishop, as some more recent writers report. Eusebius in the Chronicle writes this: "In the consulship of Cethegus and

Clarus, that is in the year of Christ 170, about the year 170. Melito, Bishop of the Sardians of Lydia, delivered to Antoninus a book of defense on behalf of the Christians." This is Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who was then reigning. he wrote an Apologeticum on behalf of the Christians, The most ancient testimony concerning Meliton is given by Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, in his letter to Pope Victor, who sat from the year 186 to the year 198, and it stands thus from the translation of Saint Jerome, in the book on Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 45: "What need is there to recall Sagaris, Bishop and Martyr, who sleeps in Laodicea? And of blessed Papyrius, and of Meliton, a eunuch in the Holy Spirit, who having always served the Lord is placed at Sardis, and awaits resurrection at His coming?" The last of which things are thus rendered in Greek in Eusebius, Book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 24: "Who is placed at Sardis, awaiting the visitation from heaven, in which he will rise from the dead." Saint Sagaris, Bishop of Laodicea and Martyr under the said Marcus Aurelius Antoninus the Emperor, is venerated on October 6; indeed Meliton himself, in Eusebius, Book 4, chapter 26, in his book on the Pascha, indicates the very time at which he was writing, in the beginning of his work, in these words: likewise concerning the Pascha, "In the proconsulship of Servilius Paulus in Asia, at which time Sagaris endured martyrdom, a great controversy was excited at Laodicea concerning the Paschal solemnity, which fell fitly in those days. On which days also these things were written by us." Eusebius in the same place enumerates other books of his in this way: and various other treatises: "One book on the right manner of living and concerning the Prophets; another likewise on the Church; another on the Lord's Day. There is also a book on the nature of man; one on formation, another on the obedience of the senses to the faith. Further, a book on the soul and the body and the mind; a book on baptism; a book on truth; a book on the birth and generation of Christ. Likewise another on Prophecy, another on hospitality, and another also called The Nail. To these, on the devil and on the Revelation of John; one book on the Incarnation of God. The last of all is a little book to the Emperor Antoninus." Thus Eusebius: who, after relating some things from the said little book to the Emperor, mentions other works of his, which are Excerpts from the sacred books in six books. Jerome reviews all these books in the book on Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 24, and then adds: "Praising his elegant and declamatory genius, Tertullian, in seven books which he wrote against the Church on behalf of Montanus, says that he was thought by most of ours to be a Prophet." What fragments survive from so many of Meliton's books, Peter Halloix has collected and edited together, and they can be seen in him. The book on the passing of the Blessed Virgin which stands in the Library of the ancient Fathers under the name of Meliton, unworthy of being attributed to so great a man, was rejected as apocryphal by Pope Gelasius, chapter Sancta, Distinction 15 in Gratian. In the book περὶ ἐνσωμάτου Θεοῦ, which we have translated with others as On the Incarnation of God, Dionysius Petavius shows in Book 2 of his Theological Dogmas, chapter 1, that the opinion is imputed by Origen to Meliton, as if he thought or at least argued that God was corporeal: it is so reported in Theodoret, question 10 on Exodus, both in the Greek-Latin edition of the works and in a certain manuscript Catena on Genesis. Bellarmine, on ecclesiastical writers, believed him to be ascribed among the Saints, and thus begins his elogium: "Saint Meliton, Bishop of Sardis (rather Sardiana), he is reported to be ascribed to the Saints by some. flourished in the time of Marcus Aurelius the Emperor." Peter Halloix calls him Saint throughout the treatise, and in chapter 5 adds this, that his birthday has been placed in the sacred fasti of the Church, and that he is found inscribed in certain Martyrologies on the Kalends of April: on which day Ferrarius in his General Catalogue celebrates his memory: "In Asia of Saint Meliton, Bishop of Sardis." But Maurolycus and Canisius, who are cited, place Saint Meliton in Sardinia, as we have said above.