Zeno the Martyr

ON ST. ZENO THE MARTYR

AMONG THE GREEKS.

Zeno, Martyr among the Greeks (St.)

D. P.

How unhappily the interpretation of Greek Lives turned out for Guillelmus Sirletus, we saw on the 3rd and 4th of this month, in the Acts of Saints Nicetas and Plato. The same man collected, from the Greek Menaea, Sirletus's drowsiness in translating the Greek, whether manuscript or printed, in his own phrasing, as it seemed good to him, a kind of synopsis of Saints customarily commemorated in the ecclesiastical Offices of the Greeks, such as we described in the 1st Volume of March in the Preface added at the end on the Greek sources. This Cardinal Baronius repeatedly cites under the title of Menology of the Greeks in his Notes to the Roman Martyrology revised by his own care, and augmented especially from that Menology. Canisius published the same under the same title among his Antiquae Lectiones: both of them have caused us no small trouble by this deed, because of the many grave errors mixed into that collection, which in January and February it was not so easy for us to correct, being not yet fully instructed how lightly and carelessly that Synopsis had been put together. Now we retreat less hesitantly from an author so little solid, and grieve more on his account that our Ecclesiastical Fasti must repeatedly be corrected by us. But to what purpose? Because indeed twin examples of the aforementioned drowsiness again present themselves to be noted consequently, namely in the one we are now dealing with, St. Zeno; and in the five maiden Martyrs, of whom shortly. Concerning the first, in the manuscript and printed Menaea, and in Maximus Bishop of Cythera in his "Lives of the Saints," these things are read: "On the same day the holy Zeno, smeared with pitch, and cast into the fire, and wounded with a spear in the midst of the pyre, was consummated in martyrdom." is shown from the Menaea. The same torments are contained in the distich which the Menaea prefix:

A threefold contest befalls Zeno: pitch, fire, and spear; I think, for the Trinity's sake, he bore these things.

concerning the eulogy of St. Zeno. Meanwhile Sirletus, because for δόρατι, from the nominative δόρυ, spear, he understood it to read δορᾷ, from the nominative δορά, hide, rendered the aforementioned eulogy into Latin thus: On the same day of St. Zeno, who, smeared with pitch and cast into the fire, with his skin stripped off, in the midst of the pyre was consummated in martyrdom. And these things passed into the Roman Martyrology, with the Menology cited in the Notes, under this formula: On the same day of St. Zeno, who with his skin stripped off, smeared with pitch, was cast into the pyre: how this is to be corrected from what has been said is now clear.

cast into: how this is to be corrected from what has already been said is now clear.

Whether the same is referred to April 10. Zeno the African is referred to with other Martyrs on April 10, as we said above on the eulogy of St. Pompeius; but because the Greeks refer to him as beheaded, we rather judge this one to be different from him.

ON THE FIVE HOLY MAIDENS

FROM LESBOS, MARTYRS.

Five Maidens, from Lesbos, Martyrs (SS.)

G. H.

The aforementioned Menology of Guillelmus Sirletus, already corrected by us in the case of St. Zeno, hands down these things concerning these five Martyrs: On the same day, of five Martyrs, young men, from the city of Lesbos. Lesbos is an island, and in it a city, in the Aegean Sea, between Chios and the Troad: To some, young men, but it seems rather to have been the homeland than the arena of the Martyrs. According to this Menology, as cited before, these things are read in today's Roman Martyrology: On the island of Lesbos, the passion of five Holy Martyrs, where by the word "Saints," placed in place of "Youths," it is indicated that they were of the male sex. Galesinius went before, who in his Martyrology has these things: On the island of Lesbos of the five Holy Martyrs, who, although very young, by the strength of Christian virtue underwent martyrdom constantly and bravely. Greek tables are cited in the Notations; but what they are is not indicated. The monks Servites of the city of Bologna in the great square also looked to this, among whom, according to Masinus, are said to be preserved the relics of the Five Martyrs. But that they were maidens is proved by the Menaea, in which these things are held: more probably they were maidens, "On the same day, memorial of the holy five Martyrs, maidens from Lesbos." Perhaps in place of νεανίδων, maidens, the word νεανίσκων, young men, was taken. But the reading of the Menaea is confirmed by the Chiflet Synaxary MS.: in which they are called κόραι, maidens or virgins; and the kind of martyrdom is expressed, since they are said to have consummated their martyrdom by the sword. All of which is explained slain by the sword by the distich added in the Menaea.

The sword made the Lesbian maidens contestants — One, two, three, four, five.