ON SAINT MAXIMUS
MARTYR AMONG THE GREEKS.
CommentaryMaximus, another, Martyr among the Greeks (Saint)
G. H.
This is the other Saint Maximus the Martyr, who is celebrated on April 30 by the Greeks in the printed and manuscript Menaea, and in Maximus, Bishop of Cythera. Sirleto in his Menology has this: "And of Saint Maximus the Martyr, who, having found the middle letter x, signified a sword thrust through the belly." He excerpted this from a distich appended in the Menaea, which we judge is to be read thus.
Μάξιμος εὑρὼν τὴν Ξί συλλαβὴν μέσον, τὸ γαστρὸς ἡμῖν μηνύει μέσον ξίφος.
These verses speak not of one letter, but of a whole syllable. For if the name Má-ξι-mos is divided into its three syllables, the middle syllable will be ξι, beginning the word ξίφος, sword, and indeed cleaving the belly, namely the middle part among the limbs of the human body, and so the holy Martyr turned his name into an omen; and understood himself to be pierced through the middle of the body or belly by a sword. Now by this kind of death he is rightly distinguished from the other Saint Maximus, of whom we have just treated, whom the Greeks celebrate on March 2, May 7, and especially May 14. But at what time or place this one suffered, is not indicated.