ON STS. APELLES, LUCIUS, AND CLEMENT,
Bishops, of Smyrna, Laodicea, and Sardis.
FIRST CENTURY.
CommentaryApelles, Bishop of Smyrna (Saint)
Lucius, Bishop of Laodicea (Saint)
Clement, Bishop of Sardis (Saint)
G. H.
[1] The tables of the Roman Martyrology have the following entry concerning the two saints here proposed: "At Smyrna, Saints Apelles and Lucius, among the first disciples of Christ." Apelles and Lucius in the Roman Martyrology. Upon which Baronius notes as follows: The Greeks treat of these also on this day in their Menology, where they also affirm, and with very good reason, that this Lucius is distinct from Luke the Evangelist; and they add that this one was head of the Church of Laodicea, while Apelles was head of that of Smyrna. The words of the cited Menology, in which a third, Clement, is added, are as follows: "On the same day, of the holy Apostles from the Seventy, Apelles, Lucius, and Clement in the Greek calendars, Apelles, Luke, and Clement. This Apelles was not Bishop of Heraclea, but of Smyrna. This Luke, however, was not he who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, but was Bishop of Laodicea of Syria. Clement, indeed, who was converted from among the Gentiles, was made Bishop of Sardis. All these, when they had baptized many whom they had converted to the faith of Christ, and had endured not a few trials, departed to the Lord." So Sirlet has it in the said Menology, drawn from the Greek Menaea, whose words, as marking the first beginning of this commemoration, they were Bishops: Apelles of Smyrna, it is fitting to set forth, and they are these: "On the same day, of the holy Apostles from the Seventy, Apelles, Luke, and Clement. This Apelles was not Bishop of Heraclea, but was made Bishop of Smyrna, where he labored much in preaching the Gospel. And Luke, not he who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, Lucius of Laodicea, but Bishop of Laodicea in Syria. Clement truly, who sprung from the Gentiles came to believe, Clement of Sardis, and held the episcopate at Sardis. These therefore, having led many to the knowledge of the true God, washed with baptism and brought to the Lord, and having struggled with not a few hardships, departed to the Lord." In the same Menaea this distich is added.
A triad of disciples,
a net
of the Word
of old,
drew many peoples
from the depths
of error.
[2] These words seem to be explained thus: "This triad of disciples was already long ago made a dragnet or fisher's net of the Word, and drew from the deep of errors many peoples." So in the Greek Menaea, in which each is designated a Bishop, as also in the Menology cited by Baronius; but here, perhaps seeing the difficulties, he omitted the episcopates. In the Commentary on the Pilgrimages of Saints Peter and Paul translated from the Greek in Surius under June 29, Apelles, brother of Saint Polycarp, is said to have been appointed Bishop of Smyrna by Saint Peter. Certainly Pionius, an ancient writer, in the Life of Saint Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna which we gave on January 26, relates that, after the Apostle Paul departed from Smyrna, Strataeas and certain others with him undertook the task of teaching. Is Saint Apelles to be reckoned as one prior to these, who could have taught there at that time, being also made Bishop for the instruction of the Gentiles, whom perhaps, having long taught elsewhere, he at last rested in the Lord at Smyrna? For the rest, the first established Bishop of the Smyrnaeans is held to be Saint Bucolus, whose Acts we published on February 6, and his successor is everywhere said to have been Saint Polycarp. In the same way Saint Luke, or Lucius, could have been Bishop of Laodicea in Syria, which was called the rival of Antioch, and Clement of Sardis in the region of Lydia in Asia, which city Saint John mentions in his Apocalypse; and he admonishes the bishop (who may have been the successor of Clement) because he found his works not full. They are also reckoned in the Synopsis of the Seventy Disciples of Christ, and Apelles is listed by Dorotheus as Bishop of Smyrna, from the 70 Disciples of Christ. in another Catalogue as Bishop of Eradia, perhaps Heraclea, and is said to be the one whom the Apostle Paul mentions in the Epistle to the Romans chapter 16, where in verse 11 he calls him "approved in Christ." But Lucius is called Bishop of Laodicea in Syria; and Clement, the first to believe from among the Gentiles, Bishop of Sardica; who is wrongly listed in another Catalogue as afterwards Roman Pontiff, and for this reason perhaps was omitted from the Roman Martyrology.
[3] Georgius Cardosus, in his Hagiologium Lusitanum, reports that this Saint Lucius, disciple of Christ, The head of some Saint Lucius at Évora in Portugal. is venerated with ecclesiastical office under a double rite at Évora among the Discalced Carmelites, in the sacred church of the Virgin Mother of God "of Remedies"; because they preserve there the sacred head of Saint Lucius, given to that convent by Don Joseph de Mello, Archbishop of Évora, who had brought it from Rome, where he had been agent for the kingdom of Portugal. But it could be the head of some Lucius Martyr, for whose veneration this April 22 was chosen, because Saint Luke or Lucius is listed on that day in the Roman Martyrology and in the cited Greek Menology. Certainly without reasonably plausible documents it ought not to be believed that relics which in these centuries are brought from Rome were conveyed thither from elsewhere: especially when they are recently brought forth from the Roman cemeteries, which no one prudently would say belong to anyone other than to martyrs crowned at Rome.