ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF NICOMEDIA,
EUSEBIUS, NEON, LEONTIUS, LONGINUS AND FOUR COMPANIONS.
In the year 303.
CommentaryEusebius, Martyr of Nicomedia (St.)
Neon, Martyr of Nicomedia (St.)
Leontius, Martyr of Nicomedia (St.)
Longinus, Martyr of Nicomedia (St.)
Four Companions, Martyrs of Nicomedia (SS.)
By G. H.
Concerning these saints an arduous controversy — not to say a war — is stirred up by certain modern Spaniards, so we must proceed carefully. And first, Entered without place of martyrdom in the Roman Fasti, as what is more at hand, is brought forth the modern Roman Martyrology, in which, with no place assigned, these things are read on this April 24: "On the same day, of the holy Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus and four others, who in the persecution of Diocletian, after dreadful torments, were slain with the sword." Baronius adds in the Notes that the Greeks treat of them in the Menologion, and report them as having suffered under Diocletian. That Menologion is the one compiled by Cardinal Sirleto, as we have already said, in which these things are found: and the Menologion of Sirleto, "On the same day of the holy Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus, and four others. By command of the Emperor Diocletian they were beaten and suspended by four executioners, and so afflicted until their flesh fell to the ground and their very entrails were laid bare; finally they were slain with the axe." So it is there; and thus far no place is indicated. Who then would not be astonished that in the Pseudo-Chronicle of Dexter, whose forgers herded most such saints found without place into their own Spain, in the Pseudo-Chronicle they are assigned to Spain: their names are not added? But what seemed there to be omitted was supplied by the insipid fabricator of the other Pseudo-Chronicle, under the name of Julianus Petri, in which at number 130, under the year 290, these things have been concocted: "April 24. In the city of Larissa, which is now called Dotana or Totana, from the time of the Gauls, near Carthago Spartaria and Eliocrota: the memory of the holy Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius and Longinus, and forty others, who in the said persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, after dreadful torments bravely endured, were at last consummated by the sword." So it is there: confidently, as though, since the Roman Martyrology and Sirleto's Menologion were silent about the place, any place could now safely be invented.
[2] But at least they might have considered another work, which they often drag to their own side but which stands too much opposed to them, by Galesinius they are said to have been converted by St. George, the Martyrology of Galesinius, in which these things are handed down: "On this very day of the holy Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus and four others. When Saint George the Martyr had been crowned, and by the deadly edict of Diocletian it had been ordered that all Christians everywhere in the world, and those especially who through the care of that Martyr had clung to Christ, should be cast into prison; they, having been seized by this charge, being forced to renounce the faith, refused it with constant mind. For which cause, first, they were beaten with blows so severely that, their members being shattered piecemeal, their entrails flowed out; and then, their necks being cut, they gloriously completed the course of martyrdom." So Galesinius, citing in his notes a Greek book on the Martyrdom of Saint George. But against this Tamayus Salazar rises up in the Spanish Martyrology, and objects many things against Saint George, whom on the preceding day he had praised as the special Patron of all Aragon after Blessed James. On which day we have set forth at length what is to be thought concerning the martyrdom, veneration and Acts of Saint George the Megalomartyr, who suffered at Nicomedia.
[3] In this place, however, we proceed to bring forth other monuments concerning these holy martyrs. And first we give, this is confirmed from the Menologion of the Emperor Basil, those things which are read in the tenth Christian century in the Greek Menologion of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, and they are these: "On the same day the contest of the holy Martyr Eusebius and his companions. After the death of the holy Megalomartyr George, Diocletian commanded that all Christians who might be found anywhere in the world, and especially those who on his account had been thrust into prisons, should either sacrifice to the gods of false names and thus be loosed from chains and dismissed alive among the living, or, if they refused to do this, should be cruelly tortured, and at length condemned to the penalty of death. Accordingly these holy men, when they had seen the miracles wrought by the Megalomartyr George and had cleaved to Christ, were cast and shut up in prison. Coming forth thence and being brought before the tyrant, they were ordered to deny Christ and to sacrifice to idols. When they refused to do this, they were first stripped and impiously beaten until their flesh fell to the ground. Then, being hung up, they were cruelly scourged, until their entrails appeared outside; and at last, with their sacred heads cut off, they were beheaded."
[4] Thus far the Menologion of Basil, written out seven hundred years ago. A similar encomium is found in the Great Menaia, which we subjoin: the Menaia of the Greeks, "On the same day of the holy Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, and four others. After the martyrdom of the holy Megalomartyr George, Diocletian commanded that all Christians, and especially those who were detained in chains on account of Saint George, should either sacrifice to the gods and be restored to liberty and given their lives, or, if they refused, should be tortured with every torment and put to death. Accordingly these saints too, having been taught the Christian faith by Saint George and constant in it, had been thrust into prison. When they were brought before the Tyrant, and utterly refused to abjure Christ and to sacrifice to the idols, they were stripped of their garments and beaten by four lictors; then, being hung up, they were so foully lacerated that their flesh fell from the bones and their entrails appeared; finally, being struck with the sword, they completed their martyrdom." Thus far the Menaia, from which Sirleto and consequently Baronius derived their encomium for the Roman Martyrology, and the compiler of the Pseudo-Chronicle of Julianus Petri himself also, with the addition of the Spanish town, in order that them
he might assign them to the Spaniards. So that, however, something different from the others might be had, the companions are said to be forty; but Tamayus warns that four are to be put back.
[5] We have another ancient monument in a Greek manuscript Synaxarion at the Paris College of Clermont of the Society of Jesus, and a manuscript Synaxarion: in which the eulogy is almost the same as that which we have given from the Menologion of Emperor Basil, but at the end it adds that their souls were deposited in the hands of the living God. But whereas in the title of the Basilian Menologion only the contest of Saint Eusebius and his Companions was mentioned, in this Synaxarion the names of many are given in this way: "On the same day the contest of the holy Martyrs Eusebius, from which more companions are joined. Neon, Leontius, Longinus, Christopher, Demetrius, Danabus, Donatus, Therinus, Nestabus, Nices and their companions." In a double Greek manuscript of Turin, of the Duke of Savoy, these things are read on this April 24: "The contest of the holy Martyrs who suffered at Chalcedon. And of the holy Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus, Christopher, Demetrius, Danamus, Donatus, Therinus, Nestamus, Nices, with their companions." In the other copy the name of Donatus was lacking. In the cited manuscript Synaxarion, on May 6, these things are read: "On the same day the contest of the holy Martyrs Demetrius, Danax, Donatus, Therinus, Mesereer (in Greek Μεσερεήρα), with their companions. Their solemnity is celebrated in their church or martyrium, at Deuteron, or the Second district." On the same May 6, in the manuscript Menaia of Milan in the Ambrosian library, marked with the letter O, and number 148, there is: "the contest of Saints Demetrius, Danax, Donatus, Therenus, Meseera and their Companion Martyrs." In the manuscript Menaia of Chifflet there are noted on the same May 6 Demetrius, Danax, Therianus, Mesirus, Donatus, and they are said to have been pierced with darts. For this reason chiefly we did not wish to join them in the title to those eight slain with the sword; but we preferred to defer, in case perhaps greater light might be added when we treat of them on May 6. And although Christopher is not joined to them on May 6, we nevertheless also set him apart, perhaps to find him elsewhere among the rare saints of this name. The saints who suffered martyrdom at Chalcedon also lie hidden from us, unless they are the Forty-nine in the Roman Martyrology reported on September 24. Of those joined in the last place, Saint Nice is venerated on the following day, April 25. But Saints Donatus and Therinus are also entered on the preceding day, April 23.
[6] Michael Monachus, Canon of Capua, in part 4 of the Sanctuary of Capua, published four Calendars of the saints who were venerated at Capua; and in the third of these Calendars, called the Thesaurus, and in the fourth of that Codex, which is the Ordinary of the whole year, the memory of Saint Longinus the Martyr is proposed: The memory of St. Longinus at Capua. in the third it is also said that the feast is celebrated with three readings. Whether that memory was introduced on the occasion of Saint Longinus the companion of Saints Eusebius, Neon and Leontius the Martyrs, we do not know. But that the readings are about the Longinus who opened the side of Christ and cried out, "Truly this was the Son of God," Michael notes. These, however, belong to two men, of whom one was Longinus the soldier, the other Longinus the Centurion. We treated both on March 15.
[7] We do not doubt that different from all these is the one on whose account the Church of Osnabrück keeps this day as festive, Relics of St. Leontius brought from Rome to Osnabrück in the year 1641, under the rite of a Semidouble Office, in which all is from the Common of One Martyr except the Fourth Lesson, which is of this kind: "When the fury of the pagan powers was raging against the choicest members of Christ, especially under the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian, in the seventh year of the persecution, the impious Maxentius stormed against Saints Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus, and four others; and after many and various torments, when savage cruelty obtained nothing and accomplished nothing, he finally ordered them to be beheaded for the faith of Christ — in the year of Christ 308, on the 8th day before the Ides of April. The whole body of this Saint Leontius Pope Urban VIII gave as a gift to Francis William, Bishop of Osnabrück, when he was visiting the thresholds of the Apostles for the second time in the year of Christ 1641 and in person venerating the holy Apostolic See. Of which relics he himself afterwards gave a great part to this his cathedral church, for the greater devotion of the people."
[8] Thus far the proper offices of the church of Osnabrück, printed in the year 1652: The memory of which thing is inserted into the Breviary with many errors. whose compiler seems to have made Maxentius the author of the martyrdom for no other cause than that they should be believed to have suffered at Rome, the body of one of whom he thought had been brought thence to his own people. But unskillfully enough he joined the consulate of Diocletian and Maximian — which, after they abdicated the Empire in the year 304, cannot and ought not to be conceived as existing — with the tyranny of Maxentius, who first seized it in the year 306. Moreover, what is here called the seventh year of the persecution, reckoning from the year 303, and continued up to the victory of Constantine over Maxentius in the year 311, or even up to the death of Licinius slain in the year 326, would be the year 309 of the common era. All these inconsistent things could have been avoided if, when the Osnabrückers had received from the Roman crypts the body of a certain Saint Longinus, they had looked to the entries of the Roman Martyrology as certain witnesses of all the martyrs; and, not finding there the place of martyrdom endured by Longinus and his companions, had believed, through this silence about the place, that it was ascribed to the city of Rome. To whom, and to others having similar relics from the Roman Crypts, we would advise that, having laid aside the vain anxiety of knowing more than the name about them, they take for the day of veneration the day on which they were translated; lest, if they choose the day on which a Martyr of like name has been inscribed in the Martyrology, they lead themselves and their posterity into errors and abuses not easily to be corrected.