ON SAINTS CAJUS AND CREMENTIUS, CONFESSORS AT ZARAGOZA IN SPAIN.
AFTER A.D. 303.
CommentaryCajus, Confessor, at Zaragoza in Spain (St.)
Crementius, Confessor, at Zaragoza in Spain (St.)
G. H.
[1] In the third place among the Martyrs of Zaragoza these two are reported in the Roman Martyrology in these words: "In the same city, of Saints Cajus and Crementius, who, having confessed a second time, and persevering in the faith of Christ, tasted the cup of martyrdom." Inscribed in the lists, In the Zaragoza Breviary of 1573 they are celebrated also on this day, but as we observed above, wrongly numbered among the 18 Martyrs, of whom we treated above. Galesinius placed Saint Engratia between these two, and asserts that these two, once and again gravely tortured, constant in confession, "drank the cup of martyrdom": but instead of "drank," which signified accomplished martyrdom, Baronius prudently substituted "tasted," for Prudentius does not sufficiently indicate that they died by violent death in the Hymn on the Martyrs of Zaragoza set forth above, from which it is pleasing to repeat a few verses, where, after the things said of Saints Encratis and Vincent in number 7, these things are sung:
"With Cajus added, reported by Prudentius, (for he is not to be silent) And you, Crementius, to whom it came to bear A bloodless honor from a second Contest of praise.
Both having confessed the Lord, stood Sharply against the roar of robbers: Both lightly tasted the savor Of martyrdoms."
We shall therefore call them Confessors with Nebrissensis: and estimate their first contest to have been under the Governor Rufinus, as Confessors. not without effusion of blood: in which God forbid that we should feign them to have fallen from the faith, with Francisco de Bivar: whom Tamayo de Salazar would not have wished to follow, if he had directed his mind to these words of Prudentius in the aforementioned Hymn:
"Nor did any of ours yield to the fury without praise, Or empty of glorious blood."
Their second contest, and that wholly bloodless, would have been under Dacian, who, wearied by the torments inflicted on Saint Engratia, feared to be fatigued equally in vain in torturing them, and therefore preferred to waste them with prison misery, until his return: from which, after the empire was abdicated by Diocletian and Maximian, they were freed. How long they lived, or how they died, we leave undefined: for certain, however, we hold that there was some cult of them as Confessors at Zaragoza, because Prudentius wished to remember them so solemnly.