CONCERNING THE HOLY DALMATIAN MARTYRS,
DOMNIUS, OR DOMNIO, BISHOP OF SALONA, ANASTASIUS, MAURUS, ASTERIUS,
SEPTIMIUS, SULPICIANUS, THELIUS, ANTIOCHIANUS, PAULIANUS, CAIANUS, AND MANY
OTHERS, LIKEWISE DOMNIO, OR DOMNIUS, THE CHAMBERLAIN, AND DALMATIAN.
At Salona, Spalato, and Rome.
PrefaceDomnius, or Domnio, Bishop of Salona (Saint)
Anastasius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Maurus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Asterius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Septimius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Sulpicianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Thelius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Antiochianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Paulianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Caianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Domnio, or Domnius, Chamberlain of Maximian, a Dalmatian (Saint)
BY G. H.
Salona, a city of Dalmatia once most celebrated, on account of its situation most advantageous to the Romans, surpassed all the other cities of Illyricum. Its magnificence, says Giovanni Lucio in his learned commentary on the Kingdom of Dalmatia and Croatia, book 1, chapter 6, is shown by the vestiges of an amphitheater, of temples, of an aqueduct, and of other buildings, and also by an almost infinite number of columns and sepulchral stones transported to various places in Dalmatia, and by fragments of notable inscriptions. In this city both the provincial magistrates had their seat, and the beginnings of Dalmatian Christianity arose. For, To the Salonitans in Dalmatia as Thomas the Archdeacon of Spalato, in his History of the Pontiffs of Salona and Spalato, edited by the aforesaid Lucio, relates in chapter 3: "First, Blessed Paul the Apostle from Jerusalem even unto Illyricum filled it with the Gospel of Christ; nevertheless he himself did not enter Illyricum to preach, but sent Titus, his disciple, taught the faith of Christ by Saint Titus as he says to Timothy: 'Crescens has departed into Galatia, Titus into Dalmatia.' This Titus, therefore, coming to the regions of Dalmatia and preaching the word of salvation to those peoples, did not remain there for a long time; but hearing that Blessed Paul had been ordered by the Governor Festus to go to Rome, forthwith, leaving everything, he came before him and awaited him in the City: when the blessed Apostle arrived there, he preached the word of God for a longer time. 2 Tim. 4:10 But when he knew through the Holy Spirit that his own martyrdom would be consummated in the same City, he took care to dispose of the churches of Greece: wherefore he did not send Blessed Titus back to Dalmatia, but to Greece, where he was better known, establishing him as Pontiff in the island of Crete." Thus far Thomas. Saint Titus is venerated on January 4; Saint Crescens, who suffered martyrdom in Galatia under Trajan, on June 27. What pertains to Saint Domnius is thus continued by the same Thomas the Archdeacon.
[2] "In the place of this Titus, Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, sent a certain disciple of his, Saint Domnius, sent by Saint Peter by name Domnius, by race a Syrian, by country an Antiochene, to preach to the peoples of Dalmatia the word of life which had been begun through Titus. For Blessed Peter had established this, that the Pontiffs of the Christian religion should be so arranged throughout the individual cities of the whole world, as had been anciently established among the Gentiles; for in those cities in which there were Gentile Antistites, who were called Protoflamines, he caused Bishops to be ordained; and in the metropolises of the provinces, where there were Archiflamines, he judged that Archbishops should be established. Whence along the shores of the Adriatic gulf he sent three Pontiffs: Bishop Apollinaris to Ravenna, which is the metropolis of the whole province of Aemilia; converted very many round about Mark the Evangelist to Aquileia, which was over Venice and Istria; and he sent Domnius to Salona, which was the head of Dalmatia and Croatia; in which city, at length, preaching at length and converting many throughout the whole province from the error of Gentilism, he united no small Church for Christ, and there accomplished the contest of his martyrdom with happy blood. The Martyr dies From the preeminence of this apostolic dignity, therefore, all his successors obtain the insignia of archbishops through the Apostolic See. with many others He, moreover, suffered with many others, who preceded him by one month to the glory of martyrdom." Thus Thomas the Archdeacon; to which words, relayed in book 2, chapter 14, Lucio observes the following: "Gregory VII testifies in book 6, epistle 35, that the Christian Antistites were established in the primitive Church in imitation of the Gentiles. But the Archdeacon inverts the order in his account of the Flamens: for those whom he calls Protoflamines by a Greek word were called Primi Flamines by the Romans, as Gregory, and in addition the ancient inscriptions gathered by Pierre de Marca in his treatise on the Primacy of the Church of Lyon, demonstrate. For since Gregory reports that in the place of the Primi Flamines not Bishops, as the Archdeacon says, but Primates or Patriarchs were substituted; therefore it appears that the Archdeacon, by an inverted order, placed Protoflamines in the lower place, to whom the Bishops of the individual cities correspond. But as the memory of Archiflamines is not found among the ancients, so the primitive Church did not have Archbishops: therefore it is clear that the Archdeacon, in writing concerning Saint Domnio and using the terms of his own time, also wrongly named Croatia. But just as the Governor of the Gentiles or Proconsul of the province resided at Salona, Successors had metropolitan rights so that its Bishop also had metropolitan rights, Pope Zosimus testifies, writing epistle 1 to Hesychius, Bishop of Salona; and more clearly Gregory the Great, book 7, epistle 130, sending the pallium to Maximus, bishop of the same city."
[3] Concerning Saint Domnio, the Archdeacon adds the following: "Afterward
in the time of the Diocletianic and Maximianic persecution there was another Martyr of a similar name, Saint Domnio, Chamberlain of the Emperor Maximian who differs little by the name Domnio from the name of Pontiff Domnius. But this one was one of the chamberlains of the Tyrant Maximian. Since this Domnio, therefore, enjoyed the prerogative of greater affection with the Emperor, he kept the imperial crown, and at the proper time placed it upon the Emperor's head. He was, however, secretly a Christian: and when he saw Maximian raging so cruelly against the Christians as to deter many from their holy purpose, he himself, being most Christian and most devout, strengthens the Martyrs used to exhort the Martyrs to persevere to the end in their holy purpose. Then he made an opportunity for them to escape the Tyrant's rage and to flee to the city of Rome. When this came to Maximian's notice, the madness of the persecution raged more sharply against him, so that at his own confession of the Christian name, stripped of his royal garb, unless he sacrificed to the idols, he would immediately receive the capital sentence. But Blessed Domnio, escaping the Tyrant's cruelty, hastened fleeing to Rome; and while he was going along the Claudian Way near a certain city fleeing to Rome, is killed called Julia Chrysopolis, the Emperor's soldiers running after him attacked him, and surrounding him with drawn swords, cut off his head. The Martyr himself is said, by divine power, to have raised his own head from the ground with his own hands, and to have crossed over a certain river there called Sytirion with firm steps; and being buried there, he rested for some time. But when the Lord was working many miracles through him, from many provinces people flocked to the place itself for the obtaining of health. Famous for miracles, he is brought to Salona Then the citizens of Salona, because he was of the same name as Blessed Domnio the Pontiff, going forth seized the body of Blessed Domnio and placed it with great reverence at Salona. Because of the similarity of the name, the word Domnio is often written confusedly for the name Domnius, and the reverse." Names of both confused
[4] Thus far Thomas the Archdeacon, who flourished in the 13th century, and rightly hesitates over the names Domnio and Domnius, as to which of these should be judged the name of the Bishop of Salona, Sacred cult on 11 April whom he himself calls Domnius, others Domnio and Dominio. Moreover, the ancient apographs of the Hieronymian Martyrology begin this day thus: "III Ides of April. In Mauritania, the natal day of Salonus, Maximus, Hilarius, and Concessus," concerning whom we treat separately, then they add: "and Domninus the Bishop. At Salona of Dalmatia, of Domnio, or Dominio, Bishop, and of eight Dalmatian soldiers." Which, by transposing the words, we think may and indeed ought to be more probably read thus: "At Salona of Dalmatia, of Domnio the Bishop, and of eight or nine soldiers, and of Domninus the Dalmatian." In the old Barberini manuscript these are read: "At Salmona, rather Salona, of Domio the Bishop and of eight soldiers and of the Dalmatian." But the Arras manuscripts have: "And of Domninus the Bishop and of Saint Dalmatius." Behold what we noted above from Thomas the Archdeacon, that these names Domnius, Domnio, as well as Domninus, are taken confusedly. If any prefer to join Domnius or Domninus the Bishop with the Martyrs of Mauritania, and to make him a different one from Domnio the Bishop of Salona and Domnio the Chamberlain of the Emperor Maximian, and to say that the Dalmatian or Dalmatius Martyr suffered elsewhere than in Dalmatia, so far as we are concerned they may do so, provided it be done on account of ancient monuments and better ones than those already cited. Concerning the others, Usuard has this on April 11: "In Dalmatia, in the city of Salona, of Saint Domnio the Bishop with eight soldiers." Very many manuscripts agree with Notker, Peter de Natalibus, Bellinus, Maurolyco, and the modern Roman Martyrology: where by Baronius in the Notes, from ancient monuments of the Lateran Church, those eight soldiers are said to be named Paulinianus, Telius, Asterius, Anastasius, Maurus, Septimius, Antiochianus, and Caianus. Concerning their translation to Rome we shall treat below, where a ninth, Sulpicianus, is added. By Thomas the Archdeacon above it is said that Saint Domnius the Bishop suffered with many others who "preceded him by one month to the glory of martyrdom." Below in the Acts, no. 5, it is asserted that forty were arrested, and being unwilling to sacrifice to the idols, all were at once ordered to be beheaded. This seems to have been done on this 11th of April, and then almost a month later Saint Domnius is said to have migrated to heaven on the Nones of May: on which day Ferrarius, in the General Catalogue, from the tables of the Church of Spalato, hands down the following: and of Saint Domnius, 7 May "On the Nones of May, at Spalato, of Saint Domninus, Bishop of Salona and Martyr," and soon in the Notes he uses the appellation Domnio.
[5] In the eleventh century of Christ flourished Laurentius, Archbishop of Spalato, promoted to that dignity from the See of Apsarus, with the permission of Pope Nicholas II, as Thomas the Archdeacon explains at length in chapter 16, where among other things he writes this: "In these times a certain Adam of Paris, most excellently refined in the arts, The Life long ago adorned, written in the 11th century going to Athens for the Greek studies, came to Spalato. And when he had been honorably received by Laurentius the Antistes, he was asked by the same that the passions of the blessed Martyrs Domnius and Anastasius, which had anciently been written in rude speech, he would cause to shine with polished composition. This he assented to with a grateful heart, and taking his theme from the old histories, renewed the Legends of each Martyr with quite elegant diction; he also composed hymns, and whatever is musically sung of Blessed Domnio, he wrote in metrical speech." Thus far there. The most distinguished and most erudite gentleman D. Giovanni Lucio gave us this entire ecclesiastical office at Rome, from which we give the Life of Saint Domnius divided through the lessons customarily recited at Matins. The lessons of the third nocturn are prescribed to be taken from the Homily of Saint Gregory the Pope on the Gospel according to Luke, with this beginning: "The Lord appointed also other seventy-two," which are customarily read in the Common of Evangelists. Therefore we shall perhaps not wrongly conjecture that this same one is celebrated on April 17 in the manuscript Martyrology of the Church of Prague, Cult on 17 April likewise in Greven's Auctarium to Usuard and in Canisius's German Martyrology, with this phrase everywhere: "In Italy, of Saint Domninus the Martyr, who was of the seventy-two disciples." On the same day Saint Domninus the Martyr is celebrated in the manuscript Martyrology of Cardinal Barberini.
LIFE
of Saint Domnius the Bishop
Adorned by Adam of Paris in the 11th century, and communicated from the Breviary of Spalato by Giovanni Lucio.
Domnius, or Domnio, Bishop of Salona (Saint)
Anastasius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Maurus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Asterius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Septimius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Sulpicianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Thelius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Antiochianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Paulianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Caianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Domnio, or Domnius, Chamberlain of Maximian, a Dalmatian (Saint)
BHL Number: 2268
FROM THE BREVIARY OF SPALATO.
About to write the Life of Domnius, Archbishop of Salona, Martyr of Christ, I shall not unworthily begin with his parents, since it is known that through them he was not only born but also reborn. Theodosius, therefore, a colonist of the city of Antioch, by race a Syrian, a most excellent man, full of riches and distinguished by probity of morals, though entangled in the error of worshiping the gods, Born at Antioch had this son from his Greek wife Mygdonia. But when Peter the Apostle was ruling the Church of Antioch and preaching Christ, he believed; and renouncing the worship of idols, he was baptized together with his wife and son. But Domnius, having received baptism, although still a boy of seven years, converted with his parents by Saint Peter divinely inspired, and already fervent with the love of Christ, forsook his parents and followed the Apostle. He did not look back to the riches which he was soon going to inherit, nor to the blandishments of father and mother; but despising all, he resolved to seek those riches which neither moth can corrupt nor thief carry away.
[2] Having become therefore a disciple of Peter, in a short time he became most dear both to his Master and to his fellow-disciples, a Pancratius and b Apollinaris (who afterwards was Bishop of Ravenna). Then indeed Peter, having followed Saint Peter with Saints Pancratius and Apollinaris the men of Antioch being now received into the faith, set out toward Rome with the same disciples; pitying the City, the Mistress of the whole circle of provinces, to be subject to the servitude of idols and of the devil. Meanwhile, as they journeyed, wherever they happened to turn aside, they preached religion boldly and intrepidly. Carefully fulfilling, therefore, the office of faithful preaching, they traveled through Caesarea, c Sebaste, Cappadocia, Galatia, Pontus, Bithynia, Ephesus, Patmos, Athens, He comes to Rome and at length put in at the mouths of the Tiber and entered the City, where Peter, having now converted many to the faith of Christ, and desiring to free other parts of the world from the pestilence of error, destined Pancratius for Sicily, Apollinaris for Ravenna, and is sent as Bishop to Salona Domnius for Salona, appointing each as Bishop of his own place. Domnius, therefore, having crossed the sea on quite a prosperous course, came to Salona, and began to expound the mysteries of Christ publicly and openly; very many, and converts many moved both by the arguments of truth and the greatness of miracles, despising the idols, believing, adhered to Christ, whom Domnius baptized, drawing water from the nearby river.
[3] Then a certain man named Pirgus, professing himself a Philosopher, disputes with Pirgus, a trifling Philosopher but rather given to sophistries and the clevernesses of quibbling than to Philosophy, attacks the man, and as if falsehood could be compared to truth strives to show it, and whether also from the findings of Philosophy it could be believed that there is one God, and that from him the mind was given and begotten, and then the very soul of the world; as if he too, as he had heard, held the mystery of the Trinity which was preached by Domnius. But when he had learned that this Trinity was to be referred to the unity of substance, that Father and Son and Holy Spirit are one God, because he could not grasp by reason how this might be, he despised it as delirium. Having dismissed Pirgus, therefore, with his obstinacy, Domnius went on to imbue the rest with the doctrine of salvation, confirming his words by signs and miracles: so that because he was establishing a thing above nature, namely that Christ was born of a Virgin, confirms the faith by miracles and that the same is God and man, and was crucified and buried and rose again, and ascended to heaven, by works also performed above nature he might testify that this was most true; for those afflicted with the most desperate disease, by the mere invocation of the name of Jesus, he immediately healed. In what manner, moreover, would God have given the power of doing such things to a man, unless he asserted true and right things? Thence, the number of believers having increased, they build a church, which they consecrated to Mary the Mother of God. He builds the Church of Saint Mary This still stands, and alone after the destruction of so great a city remains intact. Then Domnius, thinking also to extend more widely the name of Christ, ordains Presbyters ordains Presbyters and Levites; who being sent through Dalmatia, in a short time he gains for God almost the whole province, snatched from the devil.
[4] After so many labors of true and perfect charity, when now the time had come that he should be called to receive the reward of heavenly glory, the Lord saying: "Well done,
good and faithful servant, I shall set thee over many things, enter into the joy of thy Lord"; Maurelius, Prefect of Salona, sitting on the tribunal, orders him to be brought before him, the priests of the idols accusing him captured, he professes the faith before Maurelius the Governor of despising the gods and introducing a new religion against the laws of the Augusti, preaching one God and his Son crucified. Being asked therefore about the name of his parents and his fatherland, Domnius indicates them to Maurelius and confesses himself to be truly a Christian, and "to this," he says, "I was sent, that I might preach Christ and show that the idols are vain." And when the edict of the Senate and Roman people was set forth in the midst, that if anyone were found within the bounds of the Roman Empire saying such things, he must, unless he were willing to sacrifice to the gods, be punished with death or consumed by a manifold kind of punishments, he replied: "These unjust things do not terrify me. Christ, the Son of God, I both worship and preach; He spurns the threats but your gods I despise, I mock your threats. Heap all punishments upon me alone: I am ready to suffer all things rather than to change the judgment of the truth I assert." Seeing himself despised, Maurelius is stirred to fury; he orders Domnius to be cast into prison, and afterwards, having been brought out, he sets about corrupting him with largesses, promising many things if he would set incense before the idols. But he said: and offered riches "O insane Maurelius, do you hope to move me with money, when I of my own accord have left a much greater inheritance that I might live with the poor Christ? A Christian has no need of those riches, but of faith and virtue, by which riches that shall never perish are prepared in heaven."
[5] But when Maurelius saw that all he had attempted was falling in vain, beaten with clubs he ordered the man to be stripped and beaten naked with clubs. Now while Domnius was being beaten, a gathering of Christians was made at the Praetorium; he is defended by the Christians they insult Maurelius, raging from grief, and reproaching that it had been unjustly done for an innocent man to be oppressed with punishments in mockery. He, truly, these things being thus accomplished, 40 Martyrs are crowned suddenly sending out a band of armed men, arrested forty of these, and when they were unwilling to sacrifice to the idols, immediately ordered all of them to be beheaded; whose bodies, taken from there by night by the faithful, were buried at the foot of d Mount Massarus.
[6] Within these days, while such things were being done, the son of the widow Febronia departed life, a dead young man whose father, named Dignatius, had been a Senator of the City of Rome. Because of this the Prefect himself, bearing his death most grievously, and not ignorant that even the dead had sometimes been recalled to life by the Christians, began to urge Domnius to show in this case how great was the power of his Christ: not that he himself attributed anything to the power of Christ, requested by the Governor for he was accustomed to ascribe such things to certain magical arts. Wishing, however, in any way he could to see to the life of the deceased, he pretends that he had long believed in Christ, if by his invocation the one who had died should revive. To this Domnius said: "Although I know that you are so bound and fettered by the snares of the devil that you cannot extricate yourself at all to follow the truth, nevertheless, looking to those who believe and those who will believe, lest they should think anything impossible to the power of Christ, for the sake of believers I shall restore this dead man to his former health and life. For behold, because there are two precepts of charity, love of God and of neighbor, and we know that charity is said to exist between two, and love tends toward another so that it can be charity, the Lord sends his disciples two by two to preach: in order that he may tacitly suggest this, that whoever shall not have charity toward another ought in no way to undertake the office of preaching." Then by the body with bent knees, and with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, when he had prayed, he obtained life for the dead man in the name of Christ, he raises him that with his spirit resumed he arose on his feet and again began to live upon the earth. Scarcely had he finished the words when the event followed: and the young man was seen not as if raised from death but roused from sleep, so easily he rose.
[7] With this miracle seen, very many were converted to the faith: very many converted but Maurelius, although life had been restored to the young man, and he rejoiced greatly, nevertheless remained firm and fixed in his obstinacy of idolatry: for now his heart had been so hardened that no magnitude of signs could soften it. Indeed, he is rather urged on by the priests of the idols to hasten the death of Domnius: they offer him many gifts, and moreover fill him with suspicions, bidding him beware lest, if he should let the man go unpunished and alive, he himself, as a despiser of the Augustan laws and edicts, should be compelled to pay the penalty, condemned to death and atone for the imprudent deed either by exile, or by proscription of goods, or by death. Impelled by these words, Maurelius without delay pronounced the law, saying: "I order Domnius, acting against the laws of our Emperors and despising our gods, to be punished by death." Snatched outside the wall and led out at once, while he was praying they beheaded him. Thus the glorious Martyr, leaving the earth on the Nones of May, migrated to heaven, he dies 7 May to receive the crown of immortality from the Maker of all, for whose love he had despised death. In the same place where he had expired, by night he was buried by the Christians.
[8] Not many years later, the persecution having ceased, the body of the Martyr was translated within the city to the church of Blessed Mary, which we said was the first established there by the faithful. But afterwards, f by the irruption of the Goths, when Salona had been torn down and utterly overthrown, its citizens had fled to the nearest g islands, and then returning, in the building of Diocletian, The body is translated to Spalato which lies almost three miles from Salona, called Spalato, they established their seat; and a temple once dedicated to Jupiter, its idols cast out, was consecrated by Archbishop John to the holy Mother of God Mary, and the body of the Martyr itself they translated from Salona on the fourth day before the Kalends of Sextilis h and placed in the same temple: where to this day it is held and venerated with great veneration, famous for miracles and conspicuous for the glory of martyrdom. By the merits and intercession of this Martyr we believe ourselves to be commended to God, and we hope to be blessed; with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
HISTORY
of the Translation.
From the parchment codex of the Church of Saint Domnius at Spalato, extracted by Luca Gaudentio, Archdeacon of the said Church.
Domnius, or Domnio, Bishop of Salona (Saint)
Anastasius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Maurus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Asterius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Septimius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Sulpicianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Thelius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Antiochianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Paulianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Caianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Domnio, or Domnius, Chamberlain of Maximian, a Dalmatian (Saint)
BHL Number: 2272
BY G. H.
[1] When John, the first Archbishop of the Church of Spalato of this name, had dedicated in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary the splendid temple of Jupiter once built by the Emperor Diocletian in his own palace, desiring to dig out the sacred relics of the holy Martyrs b Domnius and Anastasius from the most famous ruins of the city of Salona, The sacred bodies are sought among the ruins of Salona and to place them in the temple cleansed and consecrated by himself, having called together a multitude of pious people, he betakes himself eagerly to the ruins of Salona, where there had been a c basilica. The place in which the sacred coffins lay hidden, enclosed in subterranean vaults, although known to some, was nevertheless mostly covered by brambles and underbrush. First of all, the faithful Pastor girds himself for the pious work; the sheep imitating the Pastor all devote themselves to the labor in eager rivalry: they remove the brambles and brushwood, they carry away the rubble and huge stones, God supplying strength to the laborers. When they had dug down to a certain depth, a fragrance of wondrous sweetness exhaled: one coffin is uncovered, and the fragrance increases. The pious Pontiff with the Clergy hastens up; and fearing lest they be disturbed by the Slavs their rivals, with great speed they bore the coffin which had first appeared, just as it was, closed, to Spalato; and opening it, they found, not the body of Saint Domnius, as they hoped, but of the holy Martyr d Anastasius.
[2] first the body of Saint Anastasius is found On the following day they return to Salona, press on with the work, dig a little deeper in the same place, and find the sarcophagus of Saint Domnius: this also they labor to convey to Spalato with equal solicitude and haste. then of Saint Domnius Yet it stood firm and was held fast by the heaviest weight, rendered immobile even to the strongest and most robust men. immobile to men The pious Antistes, therefore, thinking that the sacred weight wished to be carried by innocent and unspotted hands, gathers a weak band of boys and places them beneath the burden to be borne; translated by boys which, made light, was eagerly borne by the boys. Yet when they were fatigued by the sun's heat, they began to be afflicted by excessive thirst, in a most arid place [d] called Saline. Marvelous to relate! a living stream bursts forth from the flint, and a new fountain appears, never before seen, which still today retains the name "water of Blessed Domnius," and shows its power on the e anniversary of the present-day translation. Refreshed, the boys carry the ark into the prepared place; when it is opened, a wondrous fragrance is poured forth. The relics of the holy Martyr are found whole, on his breast were the Gospels and on his breast there was a book of the Gospels enclosed in cases, with apostolic letters formed in the ancient manner, as it is said, by his own hands. The sacred bodies of these two Martyrs, f still
rest honorably reposed in the metropolitan church of Spalato.
ANNOTATIONS.
ANALECTS
Domnius, or Domnio, Bishop of Salona (Saint)
Anastasius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Maurus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Asterius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Septimius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Sulpicianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Thelius, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Antiochianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Paulianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Caianus, Martyr of Dalmatia, at Salona, Spalato, and Rome (Saint)
Domnio, or Domnius, Chamberlain of Maximian, a Dalmatian (Saint)
§ I. The posthumous glory of Saint Domnius among the Spalatenses and in the Tremitan islands.
[1] Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the son of Leo the Wise, Emperor of the East, in his book On the Administration of the Empire addressed to his son Romanus (who succeeded him when he died in the year 959), in chapter 29 describes Dalmatia and its peoples, and begins that chapter thus: "The Emperor Diocletian greatly loved Dalmatia, Spalato founded by Diocletian whence he also led colonies of the Roman people there.... This Emperor founded the city of Aspalathum there, and in it palaces greater than any description, of which even now remain vestiges as witnesses of their ancient greatness, however much the injustice of so long a time has reduced them to nothing." And again, near the end he has this: "The Emperor Diocletian built the city of Aspalathum, which means 'little palace,' and held it as his own home, and built there a court and palaces, of which most have perished. Those which still survive are very few; in it also the church of Saint Domnius among which are the bishopric of the city and the temple of Saint Domnus, where that same Saint is buried, which was the bedchamber of the same Diocletian. Beneath are round vaults, once prisons, in which he shut up the Saints whom he savagely tortured. There also is placed Saint Anastasius." But in an earlier part this is added: "Near the sea, beneath this very city, is the city of Salona, Salona, a great city which had half the size of Constantinople: in it the Romans used to gather and take up arms, and from there used to set out to the Clusura, distant four thousand paces, which to this day is called Clusa, because it closes off, as it were, those passing through.... The Slavs or Avars, who dwelt beyond the river, being admitted into it, expelled the Romans and occupied the city of Salona; occupied by the Slavs and there settling and gradually beginning to plunder, destroyed the Romans living in the plains and on the higher places, and held their places.... When the Roman Empire, through the sloth and indolence of its rulers, the yoke of Rome cast off, they are free especially Michael the Amorian the Stammerer, had all but expired, those who dwelt in the towns of Dalmatia became their own masters, subject neither to the Roman Emperor nor to any other... and they used their own and not foreign laws." Thus far the Emperor Constantine. The said Michael the Stammerer succeeded Leo the Armenian, who was slain amid the very rites on the day of the Lord's Nativity at the end of the year 820, in whose time both Crete and Sicily were occupied by the Saracens, and the part of Dalmatia already indicated was held by the Slavs after the Romans were expelled. Balbus died in the year 829.
[2] Giovanni Lucio in book 2 of his Kingdom of Dalmatia and Croatia, chapter 2, recounts the events in the Adriatic in the time of the Croatian Dukes, [In the 9th century donations were made to the monastery of Saints Domnius and Anastasius by the Croatian Dukes] and among other things produces the Privilege of Tirpimir, Duke of the Croats, signed on the 4th day before the Nones of March, in the reign of Lothair, King of the Franks, in Italy, Indiction XV, which was the year 837, and in the said privilege he offers very many goods and possessions to the Holy Salonitan Church in the monastery of the holy Martyrs Domnius and Anastasius, Cosmas and Damian, and there sign Duke Tirpimir, various Zhupans, and Presbyters, and the names of the Servants of Masarus in the holy Mother Church of Blessed Domnius are indicated. When afterwards, the said Duke of the Croats Tirpimir having died, a dispute had arisen about that donation, his son Muncimir, Duke of the Croats, by a new privilege, signed on the 4th day before the Kalends of October in the year 890, at the beginning of Indiction XI, in honor of the holy Martyrs Domnius and Anastasius, confirmed the same donation of his father, and after the signatures of various persons the Duke himself added this: "On the following day, which is the third day before the Kalends of October, coming I, the oft-mentioned Duke, into the city of Spalato before the altars of the said Most Holy ones, and placing the little page of the Privilege with my own hand among other little gifts which my hands had been able to find, upon the altar of the most sacred Domnius, and the altar of Saint Domnius and having made over the aforesaid donation to Saint Domnius, I departed." Thus far there: from which we gather that the monastery mentioned above, though still called of the holy Salonitan Church, nevertheless existed in the city of Spalato: likewise that the Church of the Holy Mother of God at Spalato, into which, as was said above in the Acts, the bodies of these Martyrs had been brought, had taken up the name of Saint Domnius: which the oft-mentioned and churches of Saint Domnius made by the Dukes of Sclavonia Thomas the Archdeacon confirms in chapter 13. "Therefore," he says, "the Dukes of Sclavonia began to hold the Church of Blessed Domnius in great veneration, donating to it estates and many possessions, offering tithes and oblations with a cheerful heart."
The same Thomas in chapter 16, concerning Laurentius, Archbishop of Spalato, who we said above flourished in the 11th century, adds this: "And because Laurentius was such a man, and in the 11th century by the Kings of Sclavonia he was held in great reverence by the Kings and Princes of Sclavonia, and they gave to the Church of Saint Domnius villas and many estates, making confirmations and privileges over new and old grants." And with many things interposed he relates this: "The venerable Gerard, Legate of Gregory VII placed at Spalato, found there a Presbyter Ulfus, whose surname was Golfangus, bound for twelve years by Papal command with most heavy fetters, on account of the wicked crime of schism which he had practiced with Cededa in the regions of Dalmatia and Croatia. Him therefore he caused to be absolved, saying: 'Because Lord Alexander of happy memory at his death commanded all who had been imprisoned at his command to be absolved.' Yet first he caused him to take a bodily oath upon the Gospel and upon the body of Blessed Domnius, an oath upon the body of Saint Domnius that he should never relapse into the abjured heresy, and departing from these parts should never return." Thus far there. Now the said Alexander Pope II having died in the year 1073 on the 22nd day of April, there succeeded Saint Gregory Pope VII, who lived until the year 1085 and the 25th day of May, whose Acts we shall illustrate on that day.
[3] Among other Archbishops afterwards was Bernard, a Perugian by birth, consecrated in the year 1200 by Pope Innocent III, in the 13th century donations made by the Kings of Hungary a lettered and eloquent man, who vigilantly enough attended to the care of the pastoral office. Him Emeric, by others called Henry, son of Bela III, King of Hungary, venerated as a father, and at his request gave to the Church of Saint Domnius the sextarioli of the mills of the Salonitan river, which weekly pertained to the Ban, as Thomas relates in chapter 24, who in chapter 26 relates this concerning King Andrew, another son of Bela III: "In the year of our redemption 1217, in the month of August, on the 23rd day, King Andrew came to the city of Spalato.... He, seeing the solemn procession of all the citizens, descended from his horse, and surrounded by a great throng of his Princes, with the Bishops who had convened holding him on this side and that, proceeded on foot to the Church of Saint Domnius: where, the office of Masses being celebrated and an oblation made upon the altar, he withdrew to his lodging.... Now while King Andrew was making some delay, Bernard the Archbishop paid the debt of death and was buried beside the church of Saint Domnius." Thus far there. Concerning the said Kings of Hungary one may consult Bonfinius, decade 2, of Hungarian Affairs, book 7.
[4] To the mentioned Bernard in the Archbishopric succeeded Guncellus, in whose time the Spalatenses, about to fight against the insolence of a certain pirate Malducus, help in war invoked all cheered by the exhortation of a certain Prefect, began to commend themselves to God and to Blessed Domnius. And then, arranging themselves, they began boldly to advance against the enemy, and reported a notable victory over the enemy, as may be read in the said Thomas, chapter 36. Moreover, in the Memoir of the Archbishops of the Salonitan and Spalatine Church, published by Lucio page 385, Saint Domnius is reckoned first, and the ninety-eighth is Peter, a Pagensis by nation. "He," says the author, "did many good things in his time: he erected the chapel of Saint Domnius, chapel erected in the 15th century and most beautifully adorned it with pavements, raised houses and possessions of the Archbishop, and kept the church of Saint Domnius well furnished with divine offices. He sat six years, four months, died in the year of the Lord 1427 on the first day of December, and was buried before the said chapel of Saint Domnius in the same church."
[5] Thus far we have treated of the cult and veneration of Saint Domnius exhibited to him in Dalmatia and especially in the church of Spalato, where his sacred body is preserved. We subjoin some things concerning the honor accustomed to be shown him in the Tremite islands. These are commonly believed to have been anciently called the Diomedean islands, although Tacitus also in book 4 of the Annals, chapter 71, records that Julia, the granddaughter of Augustus, convicted of adultery, was by him condemned and cast onto the island Trimetus, not far from the Apulian shores. One of the Tremite islands sacred to Saint Domnius The Spalatenses to these shores
about to sail, have the said islands in view, lying opposite the province of Capitanata, sixteen Italian miles distant from the coast. These are carefully shown on the geographical maps of the Kingdom of Naples, the chief of which is called San-Nicola de Tremito, the other San-Domino, of which we treat here. Ferrarius in his General Catalogue on May 7, the day on which the Acts indicate Saint Domnius the Bishop was crowned with martyrdom, adds this: "In the Diomedean islands, of Saint Domnus, Bishop and Martyr"; and he notes that he relates this from monuments of the Regular Canons who possess the said islands, commonly called de Tremiti. Gabriel Pennotti treats them at length in book 3 of his tripartite history of the Canons, chapter 13, but without mention of Saint Domnius. That Ferrarius on that same day, when he first treats of Saint Domnius as Patron of Spalato, notes that his body is kept and chiefly venerated in one of the Diomedean islands, is there any bone there? which is named from him, we in no way approve. At most we think that some bones of his body brought from the church of Spalato have been and perhaps still are held in honor there.
§ II. The bodies of Saint Domnio and the others translated to Rome.
[6] In the most sacred Lateran Church, mother and head of all the churches of the City and of the World, Sacred cult of Saint Domnio and others on 11 April on this 11th day of April the Ecclesiastical Office is recited under the double rite for Saint Domnio, Bishop and Martyr, and his companions, whose bodies are kept in their own altar in the oratory of the Blessed Virgin Mary "ad Fontes"; and the double feast of Saint Leo Pope of Rome is transferred to the following day, of whom in second Vespers only a commemoration is made, Sacred cult of Saint Domnio and others on 11 April unless it happens to be further deferred. All, however, is taken from the Common of Many Martyrs, and at Mass the Creed is said, as is noted in the Order of Offices which is usually printed for the said Church. From which we gather that from very ancient times the custom has flourished there of venerating Saint Domnio and the other Martyrs with the Ecclesiastical Office: whose bodies, Baronius says in the notes on the Martyrology for this 11 April, "Pope John IV, a Dalmatian, translated from Dalmatia and deposited near the baptistery of Constantine, in an oratory most becomingly adorned by himself." Similar things Baronius relates in the Annals for the year 641, in which the said Pope John IV presided over the Church, concerning whom Anastasius the Librarian in his book On the Lives of the Pontiffs has this: "John, By Pope John IV the bodies of these are translated to Rome by nation a Dalmatian, son of Venantius the Scholasticus, sat one year, nine months, eighteen days. He in his time sent through all Dalmatia or Istria much money, by the most holy and most faithful Martin the Abbot, for the redemption of captives who had been plundered by the Gentiles"—whom from the above we judge to have been Slavs. Anastasius continues: "At the same time he made a church to the blessed Martyrs Venantius, Anastasius, Maurus, and many other Martyrs, and deposited in the Lateran Church whose relics he had ordered to be brought from Dalmatia and Istria, and deposited them in the above-written Lateran Church beside the Lateran Font, beside the oratory of Blessed John the Evangelist, which he adorned and endowed with various gifts."
[12] Cesare Rasponi in book 3 of the Lateran Basilica or Patriarchate, chapter 12, having said that the captives were restored to liberty by the said Pope John, adds this: "He took care that very many relics of the Saints should be brought from those lands, Names of the Martyrs related by Rasponi lest they might be objects of mockery to the Christian religion, and be brought to Rome. These were of Saints Venantius, Domnio, Anastasius, Maurus, Asterius, Sulpicianus, Thelus, Antiochenus, Paulianus." Concerning Saint Venantius the Bishop and Martyr and his body translated to Rome, we have treated on the Kalends of April: on which day Baronius notes, "The body of Saint Venantius is preserved together with the bodies of Saint Domnio the Bishop and the other holy Martyrs, whose anniversary day is observed in this same month, on the third day before the Ides of April": on which day the following is read in the Roman Martyrology: "At Salona in Dalmatia, of the holy Martyrs Domnio the Bishop with eight soldiers." But the body of Domnio, others Domnius, was not brought to Rome in the time of Pope John IV, but a whole century later was translated by John, Archbishop of Spalato, together with the body of a certain Anastasius, to his own See of Spalato, and deposited in the church of Saint Mary Mother of God now called of Saint Domnius, and up to now most reverently preserved, as is clear from what has been related above. The body of this Saint Domnio translated to Rome must therefore be thought necessarily distinct from the body of that Domnius, whether he was the chamberlain of the Emperor Maximian whose Acts of martyrdom we have also recounted above, or some Bishop indicated in the ancient apographs of the Hieronymian Martyrology. To him Baronius at April 11 attributes eight soldiers with these names: Paulinianus, by Baronius Telius, Asterius, Anastasius, Maurus, Septimius, Antiochianus, and Caianus. The last of these is missing in Rasponi, and in place of Septimius is placed Sulpicianus; and those here written as Paulinianus, Telius, and Antiochianus, in Rasponi are Paulianus, Thelus, and Antiochenus. Giovanni Severano, and by Severano in his Sacred Memoir of the seven Roman churches, printed at Rome in 1630, page 501, joins nine companions with these names: Anastasius, Maurus, Asterius, Septimius, Sulpicianus, Lelius (above Telius), Antiochianus, Paulianus, and Caianus. All of whom we have proposed in the title, because in the Corbie apograph of the Hieronymian Martyrology printed at Paris, nine soldiers are established.
[13] Images of the Martyrs Rasponi adds at the place indicated that on the wall of the said church on either side are seen mosaic images of the holy Martyrs whose bodies rest here.... "In the middle of the apse is seen an altar, raised by four steps, upon which is set a marble ciborium, supported by four noble marble columns likewise, altar beneath which they rest by most accurate work spirally fluted, with most ornate capitals, and under this altar rest the bodies of Saint Venantius and companions just enumerated.... The Lateran Canons are accustomed to celebrate there on the principal solemnities of the Blessed Virgin: which duty on the other days of the year is customarily performed by certain clerics and chaplains placed there by the same Canons."