ON ST. HERMELLUS, MARTYR,
AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
From the Martyrologies.
CommentaryHermellus, Martyr, at Constantinople (S.)
P. B.
This martyr the Roman Martyrology announces on this day in these words: At Constantinople, the birthday of St. Hermellus, martyr. With this agree Usuard, Ado, and the Little Roman Martyrology of the eighth century. But the copies of the Hieronymian both inflect the Saint's name variously, and either express no place of the contest, or one different from the city of Constantinople: for the most ancient Epternach codex has it thus: At Constantinople, the deposition of the bishop of the Metropolis, and ELSEWHERE of Hermila, martyr; the Corbie codex: On the III of the Nones of August, of St. Metrophilus the bishop, and of Hermelus, martyr; the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden: On the III of the Nones of August, of St. Metrophilus the bishop, and of Hermetus, martyr; the Augsburg codex: On the III of the Nones of August, of Euphronius, of Ermolus, martyr; the Labbean codex: At Autun, of Eufronius, of Hermolus, martyr. Add that no Martyr of such a name is celebrated among the Greeks on this day. The Menaea indeed acknowledge two martyrs named Hermylus; but the one, with his companion Stratonicus, on the day the XIII of January and the 1 of June, the other, with Phocas, on the day the XVIII of December; neither suffered at Constantinople,
neither unaccompanied; as is this our martyr; whom accordingly the more recent Constantinopolitans seem to be ignorant of; which could be affirmed more certainly, if it were known to be sufficiently ancient, what on this day is read thus in the manuscript Florarium of the Saints: At Constantinople, of St. Hermellus, martyr: this most holy man never departed from the communion of the holy Mysteries and from the prayer of the Church; leading a solitary life, he had various little cells in desert places, in which he wrought remarkable works of the virtues. But we find this eulogy in this one monument alone of the fifteenth century nearly at its close: elsewhere absolutely nothing; just as Peter de Natalibus, in the Catalogue, book 11, chapter 130, confesses that he too once found nothing of him besides his name and cult.