ON THE HOLY MARTYR, AT XANTEN IN CLEVES.
CommentaryMartyr, at Xanten in Cleves (St.)
G. H.
[1] The city of Xanten in the Duchy of Cleves and the diocese of Cologne, illustrious in situation, basilica, and clergy, celebrates this holy Martyr on this day, whose memory is inscribed in the Auctarium of Molanus to Usuard, in the German Martyrology of Canisius, in the Gallican supplement by Saussay, in the Catalogs of Ferrarius and Theodorus Rhayus, and finally in the Cologne Fasti of Egidius Gelenius with this elogy. Discovery of the body "At Veteres or Xanten in Cleves, of the Blessed anonymous Martyr, discovered in the times of Philip the First, Archbishop of Cologne, whom the tablets of that Church attest to have been found in purple and shoes, the top of his head cut off. We, who have seen the little clots of blood clinging to the hairs in his monument, have written these things, that you may believe, and through the circuit of the year on this day and always hold him in veneration. And the veneration for nearly 600 years. Nor be disturbed that his name is not had, when the Theban legend scarcely contains the names of twelve Martyrs." So an eyewitness in Gelenius. Philip I Heinsberg sat from the year 1167 to the year 1191. Hence the veneration of this saint has lasted nearly six hundred years.