ON THE HOLY ROMAN MARTYRS BONUS, FAUSTUS, MAURUS, PRIMITIVUS, CALUMNIOSUS, JOHN, EXUPERIUS, CYRIL, THEODORE, BASIL, CASTULUS AND HONORATUS.
From the Acts of St. Stephen the Pope.
CommentaryBonus, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Faustus, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Maurus, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Primitivus, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Calumniosus, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
John, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Exuperius, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Cyril, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Theodore, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Basil, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Castulus, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
Honoratus, Martyr, at Rome (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
We here speak of those Acts which Surius edited from Baronius, and which will be illustrated on the following day, for in those which Metaphrastes enumerates in the same Surius, somewhat other names, another order is exhibited of this kind: Some discrepancy Faustus, Maurus, Primitivus, Columnius, John, Euperantius, Cyril, Honoratus, Theodosius, Basil, Castalus, Donatus, yet so that in both places the number twelve is completed; and so you may deservedly judge that Usuard had other Acts before his eyes when he thus wrote: On the Latin Way, of the holy martyrs Bonus the presbyter, Faustus, Maurus with seven others, who are described in the Acts of Pope Stephen: where you see that only ten are reckoned. With most of our manuscripts, he who was edited by our Elders under the name of Florus omits three from this number, when he thus announces: At Rome, the passion of SS. Bonus, Faustus, Maurus, Primitivus, Calumniosus, John, Exuperantius, Cyril, Honoratus, who, since they were clerics of B. Stephen the bishop, were equally beheaded by Valerian and Gallienus, without any hearing, for the name of Christ.
[2] Galesinius followed Usuard, adding of his own: whose combats accomplished for the glory of Christ, in the number of Martyrs. and deeds divinely done, are read with great testification of piety and faith: namely in the Acts of St. Stephen, as he openly declares in his notations. But if he consulted those things which Baronius published, he found no others than those which we have already related from Florus: who, without a hearing, are ordered at once to be beheaded, and were beheaded on the Latin Way near the structure of the Aqueduct, whose bodies Tertullinus collected, and placed beside the bodies of Jovinus and Basileus on the Latin Way, on the Kalends of August. Galesinius, I think, preferred Metaphrastes speaking thus: After many days Valerian and Gallienus began to seek out the blessed Bishop Stephen and his clergy; nay even, an edict being set forth, they ordered that wheresoever they should be found, after many and various torments, they should be killed by a most bitter death. So twelve clerics were detained, whose names are these … who, when they were tortured with many torments, nor could be brought to do what they were ordered, at last the emperors ordered them to be beheaded.
[3] Equilinus assigns dignities. Whichever Acts you prefer, you will find nothing about the deeds or martyrdom of the Saints besides what has already been said. That the number was twelve all the Legends expressly show, although in the individual names they do not agree, because some could easily have been dislocated when Metaphrastes transcribed them from Latin into Greek; and in the copy which Usuard saw only ten, but in several others only nine were enumerated; which alone also are reckoned in the codex of the contracted Hieronymian Martyrology of Labbe, edited by us; into which it is indeed wonderful that names of this kind were transferred, which in the larger codices, published by Florentinius, are nowhere related. But whence Equilinus drew his distinction between presbyters, deacons, and subdeacons, whom he reckons by name, no one would easily divine. For the rest, that at least some of the bodies of these, once translated by Paschal I, are hitherto kept at Rome in the church of St. Praxedis, Panvinius On the seven churches of the City, page 260, Aringhi Roma subterranea book 4, chapter 5, and others testify. And these are the things which we had to say about the proposed class of Martyrs.