ON SAINTS EUODIUS AND HERMOGENES AND CALLISTA THEIR SISTER,
MARTYRS AT SYRACUSE IN SICILY.
CommentaryEuodius, brother, Martyr at Syracuse in Sicily (St.)
Hermogenes, brother, Martyr at Syracuse in Sicily (St.)
Callista, sister, Martyr at Syracuse in Sicily (St.)
By G. H.
The city of Syracuse was once counted the greatest and most celebrated of the Sicilian, nay even of the Greek cities, which Saint Marcianus illuminated with the Christian faith, given by Saint Peter the Apostle as the first Bishop of the said city, Sacred cult as is to be said more fully on 14 June, his feast day. Four transcripts of the Hieronymian Martyrology begin this day with three Martyrs of this city, in the Latin Martyrologies on 25 April, in these words: "7th day before the Kalends of May: In the city of Syracuse in Sicily, the feast of Saints Euodius, Hermogenes, and Callista": for which in a single codex, but a very ancient one, is read "Callistus." Notker agrees with the earlier, and writes "Callista," whom also the MSS Prague and another preserved at Rome with Cardinal Barberini record as such. Usuard only referred to the first two: "In the city of Syracuse, of Saints Euodius and Hermogenes"; to whom is added "and of the martyrs Callistus" by Molanus, but in another character: and thus they are inserted in the present Roman Martyrology. Francis Maurolicus, the Sicilian Abbot, set forth them in this order
thus: "At Syracuse, of the holy Martyrs Euodius, Callistus, and Hermogenes." Octavius Cajetan, Syracusan by birth, in his Sicilian Martyrology has this: "At Syracuse, of the holy Brother Martyrs, Euodius, Hermogenes, and their Sister Callista." In the MS of Saint Cyriacus are referred Saint Euodus and Callista, but are wrongly attributed to Caesarea.
[2] The Greeks in the greater Menaea celebrate the same on the Kalends of September with this encomium: "On the same day, 1 September, in the Greek Menaea, 1 September of the holy Martyrs and brothers by birth, Euodius, Callista, and Hermogenes. These holy Martyrs were brothers by birth, born of the same womb, and reborn through the divine laver at the time of the preaching of the Gospel: who in the name of the Christian faith were brought before the Prefect, and when their noble and unconquered spirit was established, being condemned to the sword, with their necks cut off they completed their course, and migrated to the Lord." The same is read in Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, "in the Lives of Saints." In the MS Synaxarion of Paris of the Clermont College, the memory of four Martyrs is celebrated without encomium in these words: "Mnemē tōn hagiōn Martyrōn Agathokleias, Kallistēs, Hermogenous kai Euodou." Memory of the holy Martyrs Agathocleia, Callista, Hermogenes, and Euodus. No Agathocleia is found among the Sicilian Saints in Cajetan. Saint Agathoclia Martyr is venerated by the Greeks, and referred to in the Roman Martyrology on 17 September, and 2 September, perhaps by error, or for some cause unknown to us, also referred here to this day. In the Menology of Cardinal Sirleti, on 2 September, the memory of the said Euodius, Callista, and Hermogenes is celebrated, with an encomium taken from the Menaea. This Menology being cited, on the said 2 September in the present Roman Martyrology this is read: "On the same day, the passion of Saints Euodius, Hermogenes, and Callista, brothers and sister by birth."
[3] The aforementioned Octavius Cajetan of Syracuse, in volume 1 of the Lives of the Sicilian Saints, treats of these Saints on pages 124 and following, mentioned by John Damascene. and in the Animadversions page 104 brings forward some testimonies of ancient veneration; and first of John the monk, who to him is Damascene, and says: "The beginning of the year comes, inviting us to celebrate the illustrious Callista, Euodius, and Hermogenes, brothers by birth, athletes." by Philip, or Theophanes, or Gregory of Taormina: Second is cited Philip, Bishop of Taormina, who is perhaps the same, he says, as Theophanes, Bishop of the same. There is a homily on the Indiction of the New Year, which under the name of Gregory, surnamed Figulus or Cerameus, Archbishop of Taormina in Sicily, Dionysius Petavius published in Greek and Latin at the Breviary of Nicephorus of Constantinople, and on page 270 concerning these Saints has this: "We celebrate the anniversary day of Callista, Euodius, and Hermogenes, no less brothers in faith than in nature." And these with the Greek Menaea celebrated the feast of these Martyrs on the Kalends of September, from which the Greeks begin the year and the new Indiction. A third testimony of Saint Joseph the Hymnographer is brought forward of this kind: "Faithfully, Callista, you entered the arena of martyrdom, and from Saint Joseph the hymnographer. Faithfully, Callista, you entered the arena of martyrdom, preaching with your two Brothers Christ our God. Verily, inflamed with divine love, truly you perfected them as spiritual vessels of Christ's Church: wherefore with them as a Martyr you were fitted into the heavenly life."
[4] Finally, from the MS Greek Contacarium of the monastery of Saint Philip Fragalatis, Prayer from a Greek song to the same. is brought forward this prayer: "Nobly indeed you contended for Christ, joined together in love, as though one soul were in three bodies, brothers by race, most holy Martyrs in faith. But you who are one in the saints gloriously, protect us by their prayers. I judge it worthwhile, impelled by the sacred victors, to bring forward hymns in the midst: wherefore I pray to you, O Giver of wisdom, that by the splendor of your holy Spirit you cleanse my mind and tongue, that I may sing those things which right and duty command. This I ask of you again and again (for from you flow the fountains of graces), O Word of the Father, who pour the fount of light into the darkened, and impart wisdom to the unlearned and untrained: which is your goodness, alone resting in the Saints. All-beautiful are you, O Martyr Callista, wherefore the King desired your beauty. For you, as though a true and proper mother, showed yourself a nurse of piety to your brothers by birth; and urging them to the contest, Hermogenes and Euodus, as most pleasing gifts, you offered to the Lord; with whom at the same time you obtain the immortal rewards: which He promised to grant to us who alone rests in His Saints." So there, all of which, as has been said so far, cohere with themselves, and confirm the triumph of the same Saints: and require that Callista be called Sister, not Callistus, but they permit that Euodius or Euodus, as commonly happens in such cases, be said at will.
[5] At what time martyrdom was inflicted. Concerning the time at which these Saints underwent martyrdom, nothing certain is established. Rocchus Pirrus, in volume 2 of Sacred Sicily, in the Notitia of the Church of Syracuse, page 125, hands down that in the year 309, on 25 April, at Syracuse the brothers Callista, Euodius, and Hermogenes suffered martyrdom, with the Roman Martyrology, Maurolicus, Usuard (but in these nothing is handed down about the time of martyrdom), Cajetan, and Ferrari agreeing. And Ferrari indeed hands down that they suffered martyrdom in the immense persecution of Diocletian, as is the conjecture, for the constancy of Christian faith. Cajetan in the margin to the Acts of these Martyrs notes the year of Christ 304: but, as Ferrari well noted, from conjecture. Why should they not have suffered earlier; they whom the Martyrology of Saint Jerome places in the first place? The city of Syracuse had its first Martyrs under Nero, of whom we treated on the Kalends of January: in which century also the Bishops of Syracuse Marcianus, Martyrs, died, and his successor Chrestus, to whom as a companion is given Saint Peregrinus, Martyr under Domitian, suffered on 3 November.
[6] Some things fabricated among the Spaniards of today. Having so far established these things, we are reluctant to add what is circulated concerning Saint Hermogenes and his companions among the modern Spaniards, from the Additions to the Chronicle of Maximus, attached under the name of Heleca, Bishop of Saragossa, as though Saint Hermogenes saw Saint James the Apostle dying at Jerusalem, and accompanied by other disciples brought his body in a ship to Spain, and after its landing at Iria Flavia a city of Galicia, betook himself to Italy, and in the persecution of Nero, preaching at Syracuse, was killed with others: as these things Rodrigo Caro published with the Chronicles of Dexter and Maximus page 224. From this foundation, however, Francis Bivarius wove another Life of Hermogenes, in the Additions to the Chronicle of Maximus, page 24. On the same foundation Tamayo-Salazar finally inserted Saint Hermogenes himself into his Spanish Martyrology on this day, and wove a Life from the Lessons which are recited concerning Saint James, and which will need to be examined on 25 July. But supposing that then some Hermogenes lived, even different from him whom Saint Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 1 indicates deviated from the faith, is that enough to drag this illustrious Syracusan Martyr continuously into the said company of Saint James? We require more certain monuments.