ON STS. OLYMPIADES AND MAXIMUS
MARTYRS AT CORDULA IN PERSIA.
A.D. 251.
CommentaryOlympiades, Martyr, at Cordula in Persia (St.)
Maximus, Martyr, at Cordula in Persia (St.)
BY G. H.
The Acts of Sts. Olympiades and Maximus are contained in the Life of St. Lawrence the Martyr, to be given from various and very ancient manuscripts in its original wording on August 10: from which we excerpt those things which concern these Martyrs, and they are as follows:
[2] Decius the Emperor obtains a victory over the Persians: A storm having arisen under the Emperor Decius, many Christians in the city of Rome were put to death. With Galba presiding in the city of Rome, Decius proceeded against the Persians, since war was being urged by the Persians. Coming into the city which is called Ponticum, he settled there, but the war was still being waged. Decius climbed up into the mountain of the Medes, and having engaged in battle with the Roman army, he gained the victory and slew a multitude of the Persians: and obtained these cities: Babylon, Bactriana, Hyrcania, Cordula, Assyria: where also he found many Christians, whom he killed with torments and afflictions… Then Decius, coming into the city of Cordula, He comes to Cordula: with fury ordered the presbyters and deacons to be brought before him… On the same day Olympiades and Maximus were handed over to Decius, most noble Christian men. By whom these Saints are ordered to be beaten with cudgels, When they had been brought before Decius, without questioning them he ordered them to be beaten with cudgels, Decius saying: "These men are worthy to be handed over to death, nor ought a hearing be given to them, who forsake the gods and worship a dead man." Maximus answered, saying: "Rightly did you say 'dead,' but since he rose again, why do you not say that?" Then Decius said to them: "Disclose to us the resources of your property." Olympiades said: "Our wealth, gold, gems, or silver, is Christ. For learn, wretched man, that we hand over our bodies to you, they disclose the mysteries of the faith. having lost earthly and perishable wealth. For if you considered what you yourself are, you would humble yourself before God your Creator and his Son our Lord Jesus Christ. For riches and honors are for a time, for others for glory, for you for eternal punishment." Then Decius said to his soldiers: "Beat them with cudgels, because these men are out of their minds." And when the beaters had grown weary, Maximus cried out saying: "Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, because you have deigned to number us among your servants." Decius, full of fury, ordered them to be beaten with leaded whips while a herald cried: "Do not blaspheme the gods." Amid the blows they praise Christ. And as they were beaten, they were the more strengthened, and with cheerful countenance cried out, saying: "Do what you wish: do not cease: cleanse what is filthy."
[3] Decius said to his soldiers: "Lift them up from the ground, and set before their eyes iron beds, They spurn the offered honors and threats. and linens and water for them to sacrifice, and let care be shown them: or else let them be stretched out upon iron beds over coals, and so expire." And he handed them over to Vitellius Anisius the Vicar. Vitellius Anisius said to them: "It is known to you what the most excellent Decius Caesar has ordered, that if anyone sacrifices and observes the precepts of the Princes, he shall be honored and be a friend of the Princes, and be enriched with wealth and honors and dignities: but whoever does not consent shall expire racked by various torments." Maximus answered and said: "Your torments are momentary and quickly pass: but you yourselves will afterwards expire. We do not dread your torments but desire them: With their heads struck by axes they die: for we fear the eternal torments, which are ready to torture you with your father the devil." Vitellius Anisius the Vicar, full of fury, ordered that their heads be struck with axes. And when they had been long beaten, they gave up their spirits.
[4] And Vitellius Anisius ordered that their bodies be left for the dogs: The bodies, untouched by dogs, are buried. where they lay for five days. But the dogs, as they came, gave forth a lowing sound, and did not touch the holy bodies. After the fifth day, certain Christians, noble men of the family of Abdon and Sennen, came and collected the bodies, and gathered them into their house, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of April.
[5] These are their Acts from ancient monuments, in which at the end should be read the twelfth day before the Kalends of May, Their sacred cult: or at least so it was read in their writings by those who published their martyrdom on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May. Certainly Bede in his genuine Martyrology has published this from these Acts: In the city of Cordula, the birthday of Olympiades and Maximus; who, by the order of Decius, were beaten with cudgels and then with leaded whips, and at last their heads were struck with axes, until they gave up their spirits. These same things are read in Rabanus, Usuard, Ado, Notker, and the other more recent writers; in some of these is added "in Persia," as in today's Roman Martyrology, in which no mention is made of the city of Cordula, the place called by some Corduba: for which Baronius would prefer to read Corduena, as he notes in his annotations: which we have found in no manuscript. There are many places in Persia and other regions which have not been noticed by other authors. Concerning the military expedition we have treated at length on February 17 in the Life of St. Polychronius, Bishop of Babylon, then also crowned with martyrdom, where in his notes Baronius admits that the times of Decius remain very obscure, and those things only are clear which the writings of Christians and the Acts of the holy Martyrs reveal and the time of martyrdom. concerning the persecution stirred up by him against the Christians. The years of the reign and consulate of Decius we have arranged on February 5 in the Life of St. Agatha §1. We judge that these Martyrs were crowned with martyrdom in the year of Christ 251.
[6] Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology reports these things concerning these Saints: At Saint-Malo in Brittany, and also at Liège in the territory of the Eburones, Whether relics and veneration of these are at Saint-Malo and Liège. the veneration of the holy Martyrs Olympiades and Maximus; who, illustrious by birth and more illustrious by faith, in Spain by the order of Decius were beaten with rods, bruised with leaded whips, and at last struck with axes on the head, breathed forth their blessed souls in the glorification of Christ. Their relics, long preserved in honor, afterwards, during the Saracen incursion, were brought into Gaul and dispersed, and in various places, especially in the cities named above, received fitting veneration. So Saussay — not without some error, as we fear. These suffered in Persia, and in the city of Cordula, for which in some Acts is read Corduba, as is the very well-known city of Spain, to which he assigns their martyrdom: which we have not up to now found done by Tamayo-Salazar or other Spanish writers. We have several Breviaries and Missals of Liège, printed within the last two hundred years; as also the proper offices of the Church of Saint-Malo, but without any trace of the veneration of these Saints; nor does Raïssius mention them, when in his Hierogazophylacium Belgicum he enumerates the relics of the churches of Liège.
[7] Ferrari in the General Catalogue changes the sex of these Martyrs, and begins this day thus: On the 17th day before the Kalends of May. Should Sts. Olympia and Maxima be assigned to Corduba? At Corduba in Spain, of the holy women Martyrs Olympia and Maxima, and in his notes he alleges the Tables of the Church of Corduba: and adds that on this day in the Roman Martyrology there is treatment of Olympiades and Maximus Martyrs in Persia. As though he were certain that the former are to be distinguished from the latter. But it would be a great marvel concerning those women Martyrs, if there were any knowledge of them at Corduba, that Martin de Roa, who so accurately wrote concerning the Saints of Corduba, could obtain no knowledge of them, nor that any mention is made in the Order of reciting the Divine Office so often reprinted at Madrid, in which the Saints of Corduba are separately set forth. Juan Marieta in the Index of Saints of Spain, distributed by months and days, on April 15 places Sts. Olympius and Maximus, Martyrs, but with no page indicated where they are discussed: and so we suspect that in his work itself they were intentionally omitted, since the Roman Martyrology asserted that they belonged to Persia, not Spain.