St. Faustinus or Faustus, Martyr, at Milan.
St. Peter, Martyr, at Rome.
St. Julian or Juliana, Martyr, at Rome.
St. Carpophorus, Martyr, at Como.
St. Exanthus, Martyr, at Como.
St. Cassius, Martyr, at Como.
St. Severinus, Martyr, at Como.
St. Secundus, Martyr, at Como.
St. Licinius, Martyr, at Como.
St. Donatian, Bishop and Confessor, at Châlons in Gaul.
St. Donatus, Bishop and Martyr, at Arezzo in Tuscany.
St. Hilarian, Martyr, at Arezzo in Tuscany.
St. Simpronius, Martyr, at Antioch.
St. Venerius or Veneria, Martyr, at Antioch.
Seven other Martyrs, at Antioch.
St. Hyperechius, Priest and Confessor, among the Greeks.
St. Donatus, Confessor, at Imola in Italy.
St. Celsus, Confessor, among the Limousins in Gaul.
St. Victricius, Archbishop and Confessor, at Rouen.
St. Donatus, Bishop, at Besançon in Burgundy.
Blessed Jordan Forzaté, of the Benedictine Order, at Padua in Italy.
St. Conrad of Nantwein, at Wolfratshausen in Bavaria.
St. Albert, Confessor of the Carmelite Order, at Messina in Sicily.
Blessed Vincent, of the Order of Minors, at Aquila among the Vestini of Italy.
St. Cajetan of Thiene, Confessor, at Naples.
Sigebert (otherwise Sigbrecht or Sigebrecht), king of the East Angles, martyr, Saussay and Bucelinus adorn on this day with a rather long eulogy, to whom Ferrarius and Menard subscribe: others prefer another day, as does Wilson in the English Martyrology of the later edition, whom our Alford follows, both marking him on the day 27 September. On the other hand Whitford, the older and more approved English Martyrologist, prefers 16 January, which our predecessors could not know, since they then lacked that book. You see that the natal day is plainly ambiguous, just as the year of his death is also uncertain. Mayhew on this day brings forward other witnesses of a cult from time immemorial, while meanwhile he is passed over by Mabillon among the Benedictine Saints. In that uncertainty of the day of his death, we judge that Whitford, on whose authority we chiefly rely, is to be preferred, and we accordingly refer the Saint to the Supplement, 16 January.
St. Boisil, abbot or provost of Melrose in Scotland, I know not why is entered on this day by Dempster, and from him by Ferrarius in the general Catalogue. Treatment has long since been given of him at 23 January.
St. Asterius the Senator, beheaded, is marked among the Greeks in the Menaea and in the Menaeum of Chifflet. He is venerated with St. Maximus among the Latins on 3 March.
The memory of the holy martyr Dometius under Julian the Apostate is inscribed with an eulogy in the Menologium of the emperor Basil. That Martyr is marked and praised in the same place at the day 23 March; and that same eulogy of him was long since published by us in Greek at the end of volume 1 of the same month, page 871, and rendered in Latin in volume III, page 459, at the said day, on which treatment was given of that Martyr: so that it is a wonder that the same eulogy is repeated on the present day. See therefore the day 23 March.
The memory of St. Mary of Egypt is kept with a singular feast at Trier on this day, as is expressly marked in the Lectionary of that church, proper lessons being also given. Greven also marked the Saint on this day. Treatment of her has been given in our work on the day on which she is venerated in the Roman, 2 April.
St. Donatus, bishop of Euria, or rather Euraea, is marked on this day by Greven and others, without doubt on the occasion of St. Donatus of Arezzo, who truly belongs here. Treatment of him was given on the day on which he is venerated by the Greeks, 30 April, when our predecessors did not know, I think, the inscription which our Janning had copied in his Venetian Diary, noting that he had visited at Murano the elegant monument in which his relics are kept, on the front part of which the effigy of the Saint himself, lying like one dead, is carved in episcopal habit and overlaid with gold. He observes besides that in the upper part of the altar an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, becomingly enclosed, is exposed to the veneration of the people at certain times, the veil being removed. Further, between the image and the aforesaid monument, he read the following inscription: "By the munificent bounty in marbles of the Most Serene Prince Francesco Molin and of the most august Senate of the Venetians, and by the pious alms of the citizens of Murano, a sepulchre having been skilfully constructed, the body of St. Donatus, bishop, hidden five hundred years ago in the base of the altar, was by solemn translation more becomingly placed by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord, D. Count Marco Antonio Martino Turcelli, Bishop, that it might be adored with greater piety; and the image of the most blessed Virgin Mary of Graces having been taken from a narrower chapel, the altar itself was adorned for beauty and amplitude, under the care of the very Reverend Niccolò Calura, parish priest, and the Reverend members of the chapter, in the year of the Lord MDCLVI, on the 7th day of the Month of August." Janning adds that no instrument was made of this last translation, nor is any written record of the first to be found. "The feast of both," he says, "is kept on 8 August, on which they were made": but the natal day, we have said, is kept on 30 April.
St. Megetius or Migetius, bishop of Besançon, successor of St. Donatus, Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti and Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology commemorate on this day; I believe on the occasion of St. Donatus, whose feast is celebrated today: for our Chifflet candidly confesses that he did not find, even in the Martyrology of Besançon, the day on which St. Megetius either died or was ever peculiarly venerated there. Whence Castellanus, in the index of his universal Martyrology, acknowledges indeed his former cult in the church of Besançon; yet he assigns no day consecrated to him. We have already given what pertains to his Acts in the Illustrationes Claudianae, collected by the Rev. Fr. Pierre François Chifflet and inserted in volume 1 of the month of June, from page 688, at the day 6 June.
The memory of St. Dometius, a Persian monk, who was stoned with two disciples under Julian the Apostate, the Roman Martyrology marks on this day at Nisibis in Mesopotamia. On the day 5 July, page 255, there is with us St. Domitius, martyr in Syria; on which occasion treatment was then given of several Martyrs of the same name probably to be fused into that one; among whom is today's Persian, further examination concerning him being, however, referred to this day, if meanwhile anything more consonant with the truth should be found. But since I have nothing at hand which clearly and certainly compels me to distinguish today's Dometius from that earlier one, I send the reader to what was said on the same day, 5 July.
The names of Africa and Valeria, sewn onto the Hieronymian text of Fiorentini as Martyrs of Augsburg, are corrupted from St. Afra etc., of whom above at the day 5 August.
That St. Afra of Augsburg has been wrongly marked on various days you will find explained on the day on which we treated of her, 5 August.
St. Hormisdas, Pope, is marked on this day among the Usuardine auctaria from the codex of Anchin. It is well enough known that he belongs to the preceding day, on which we treated of him, 6 August.
Justus and Pastor, martyrs, have been wrongly transferred hither in Kalendars of no great authority. Treatment of them has been given on 6 August.
Ferrarius reads on this day in the general Catalogue: "At Cardeña in Spain, the finding of the holy martyrs Stephen and companions." He cites the Tables of the church of Palencia. See what was said of these Saints on the preceding day, 6 August.
Leobald Bollandus found marked on this day as a martyr among the people of Troyes, whom Saussay in his Supplement, but on the following day, also proclaims a martyr: "In the territory of Troyes, the natal day of St. Leobald, martyr." By Greven and others too he is entered on that same day as a martyr, and as crowned at Troyes. But he is painted in other colours in Desguerrois in the History of Troyes, where he is called Leodebald, otherwise Leodebold, of whom treatment was given among the Passed Over at 14 June in such a way that scarcely anything remains to be said here, except that since that time absolutely nothing has been added from which it could be demonstrated that he was ever honoured with ecclesiastical cult. Besides the witnesses brought forward there, Mabillon suffices me, who, treating of him in various places as a brother of his Order, nowhere adorns him with the appellation of Saint or Blessed. If therefore the people of Troyes wish the Leobald of whom Desguerrois treats in the cited History of Troyes at the year DCL, number 13, to be numbered among the Saints, he is altogether to be distinguished from the Founder of Fleury. If the people of Troyes inform us of him in good time, their Saint can be entered either in the appendix of this month or in the general Supplement.
"At Rome, the Commemoration of St. Claudia, a noble British matron, who, sent to Rome as a hostage with her Christian parents and others in the reign of Claudius, was there given in marriage to Aulus Pudens, a senator of no inferior nobility. There she is said to have been the first Christian woman who received St. Peter the Apostle in hospitality, at whose prompting her husband, baptized, became a Christian. The same was the mother of the illustrious Saints Novatus, Timothy, Praxedes and Pudentiana. After a long and holy life spent in the exercise of Christian virtues, she made a happy end of living among the Sabines in Umbria, on her husband's suburban estate, about the year of Christ CX. Her sacred body was translated to Rome, and there most honourably laid by her sons in the monument of Pudens their father." So Wilson writes on this day in his English Martyrology; but safer monuments are needed for us to admit a Saint of this kind.
"At Orense in Galicia, the translation of St. Euphemia, virgin." This announcement of Ferrarius is one of several which he for the most part summons not very happily from Spain. Of that Euphemia we treated among the Passed Over at the day 26 July, to which we refer the reader, that he may decide about this translation what we there judged was to be thought about the Saint herself, such as she is. Whoever wishes to consult Tamayo's Spanish Martyrology will find more; whether it deserves more attention, he will see for himself.
"The holy ten thousand Ascetics of the Thebaid were consummated in peace" in the great printed Menaea of the Greeks, honoured with two little verses. Under Diocletian there was very savage raging against the Christians throughout the Thebaid, from Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 8, chapter 9; whom the Roman tables mark on the day 5 January, under the notion of very many holy Martyrs. But although in the announcement and little verses of today's Ascetics whom I was recording no mention is made of martyrdom, I nevertheless suspect that they were martyrs; whether they are comprised in those just mentioned under Diocletian, I do not divine.
"St. Or, consummated in peace," is noted in the great printed Menaea of the Greeks: add the Menaeum of Chifflet, where "Or in peace" occurs. If he is the same as the famous Or or Hor, of whom Rufinus in the Lives of the Fathers, book 2, chapter 2, what Rosweyde writes of him on that place at number 12 in the notations stands in his way, saying from St. Jerome that he was an Origenist; yet that it is not established that he died such. Harsher still is Rosweyde's language against him on book 8 of the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 9 of Palladius, number 14, where he speaks thus: "This is that Or, the Origenist heretic, etc." If therefore the Menaea designate this one, since his conversion is not established for us, I should not dare on their authority (for I certainly do not stop at certain more recent Latin martyrologists at the day 12 November) to count him among the Saints, being well aware that those Menaea are to be trusted cautiously and circumspectly, because they have been shamefully corrupted, as examples teach in the Chronological History of the Patriarchs of Constantinople prefixed to volume 1 of the month of August, at the eighth century, parergon 7. But if you wish another Or to be understood here, prove his public cult.
Godschalc, bishop of Arras, we placed among the Passed Over on the preceding day; another of the same name Molanus brings forward to us on this day from I know not where, in the additions to Usuard, in these words: "In the city of Novara, of St. Godscalc, martyr, bishop of the same city, whose passion is extant"; which passed into Galesinius, who cites the Tables of the church of Novara: in which, however, on the testimony of Ferrarius, he is found neither on this nor on any other day; nor could he be found by me so far. Nor indeed does the name savour of anything Italian, so that greater light is needed before we enter him among the Saints.
Of Stefano Maconi, of the Carthusian Order, a man celebrated for sanctity in the fifteenth century, Bartholomew of Siena, of the same Order, published a splendid Life in Latin in the year 1626, with the title of Blessed prefixed, and indeed a radiate image, compared with St. Bruno; while meanwhile he allows those monuments of his beatification or lawful cult to be wanting which our predecessors long ago missed at the Life of St. Catherine of Siena in volume III of April, page 919, asking there for what was necessary in order that treatment of him might be given on this day; and since in almost sixty whole years absolutely nothing of these has been added, we are now compelled to carry out what was there forewarned; namely, that we pass over that Stefano on this day, however celebrated, for lack of proof of cult, to treat of him elsewhere if the people of Siena supply what has been asked for.
Ulric and Martin, martyrs, at Vilna-Castrum near Livonia; two Anonymous Martyrs in the parts of the East; Martin of St. Felix, martyr, at Lancaster in England; Richard, Tertiary, bishop of Fossombrone in Picenum; Hugh, confessor, at Hussaria in Germany; Humilis and Pacificus, confessors, at Brufortium in Picenum; Bartholomew of Urbino, confessor, at Padua; Amicinus of Lodi, confessor, at Lodi; Anthony Purus, confessor, hermit, near Fabriano; Thomas Caccius and Matthew Nolius, confessors, at Novara; Justus, confessor, at Villafranca in the territory of Astorga; Louise, widow, at Orbe in Savoy: these are entered by Arthur with the title of Blessed in the Franciscan Martyrology, and the last also in the Gynaeceum.
In the Gynaeceum there are added Saretrudis and Ebana, abbesses of the Order of St. Benedict, near Laon.
Agaga and Adelidis at Bayeux in Neustria.
Innocent Bizzarus, beheaded at Memphis, is praised by Hueber in the Menologium; and likewise
James of Forosarcinium, confessor, at Genoa in Liguria.
Theuzzus or Theuzzo is praised as Blessed by Wion, Dorganius and Menard from the Vallombrosan Tables of the monastery of Bergamo, as one who also, among other things, wrote the Life of St. John Gualbert. I seek indications of lawful veneration, which, if they existed, he would by no means have been passed over by Ferrarius.
"Potamia the Wonderworker, consummated in peace," is entered in the great printed Menaea of the Greeks. The two little verses which are appended record that Potamia, slain by the sword for the wonderful Christ, pours forth rivers (in Greek ποταμοὺς) of miracles. The allusion in the Greek ποταμὸς and Ποταμία is evident.
The holy martyr Diomedes is recorded by the Kalendar of the Ruthenians in Possevino, Apparatus sacer, volume 2. Among the several Martyrs of the same name, where this one belongs is uncertain.
"In Portugal, the finding of the body of blessed Mafalda, queen, afterwards a nun of the Cistercian Order, most celebrated for many miracles." These are the words of Henriquez in his Cistercian Menologium, which are somewhat amplified by Chalemot, and from which we are informed about the finding of this Mafalda: I should wish they had added on what day she died, or with what religious and lawful veneration she is venerated.
Ansulf, monk of Clairvaux, is also adorned by both with several encomia: but there too that is lacking which is chiefly sought, that we be made more certain about a cult from time immemorial. Castellanus gives him only the title of Venerable, Saussay that of blessed memory.
Claude Vivier is added by Saussay, who died at Liège, more than once provincial of the Order of Minims, a grave and eloquent man, but above all pious.
Ternatius, Gervase, Gideon and Hugh, bishops of Besançon, are entered on this day by Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti. Saussay in the Supplement of the Gallican Martyrology commemorates the first three on the next day, for I know not what cause. The fourth certainly does not belong to this month; but to the day 9 April, on which he was entered by us among the Passed Over, because his cult was not established. The same without doubt seemed good to Castellanus about all of them: since in the index of the universal Martyrology he counted Ternatius among the Omitted; and the rest he did not think worth naming anywhere at all. But neither, without older indications of public veneration, does the bare authority of Jean-Jacques Chifflet suffice for us, nor the testimonies of Miraeus or Saussay which rest upon it, that we may safely number them among the Saints or the Blessed.
Luchina, Tertiary of the Order of St. Dominic, celebrated at Soncino among the Insubres, is adorned as Blessed with a remarkable eulogy by Arthur in the Gynaeceum at the day 23 August, whom among others Marchese cites, when he enters her on this day also distinguished with the title of Blessed, by private veneration, I think, since of lawful ecclesiastical veneration nothing has so far become known to us.
Cibthac, bishop in Scotland and apostle of the Picts, nephew of St. Columba, Camerarius marks on this day, whom Dempster too somewhere calls a Saint, yet passes him over in his Scottish Menologium. I should like to be informed from elsewhere about the sanctity and cult of Cibthac: for one is not straightway to be called a Saint because he was the nephew of some Saint, as Dempster himself observes at length in the Nomenclature of Scottish writers, page 27.
Matilda or Mathilda, queen of England, the most worthy daughter of Sts. Malcolm and Margaret, sovereigns of the Scots, illustrious for a great repute of sanctity, was referred hither by our predecessors in the annotations on chapter 10 of the Life of St. Edward on the day 5 January: and she is also entered on this day in the Martyrology of Wilson, and by Ferrarius in the general Catalogue. But among the Passed Over at the day 30 April, and again at 1 May, Henschenius left it attested that no trace of ecclesiastical veneration had been produced up to then; and since no one has produced it since that time either, we are compelled, however unwillingly, to pass over in this place also the most excellent and most Christian queen, as Aelred most deservedly calls her in the Life of St. Margaret her mother at 10 June.
A certain Faustinian, bishop of Amiens, is suggested on this day by our Ms. Florarium of the Saints, plainly unknown among the French Martyrologists as well as among the Sainte-Marthe brothers, so that another surety is needed before a place is granted him in this work.
St. Faustus Pietro Paolo Bosca inscribed on this day in his Milanese Martyrology, "whose body," he says, "is most honourably laid at Cannobio on Lake Maggiore," bringing forth not a word about the Saint, so that you may easily recognize that he was received from the Roman Crypts; of whom let it be enough to have noted these few things here.
St. Nicholas, a Calabrian hermit in Samnium, companion of Sts. Reginald and Francus, of whom treatment was given on 7 May, Bollandus once annotated on this day from Gabriele Barrio: but he is better marked by Ferrarius, with another companion, St. Falco, on the day on which we too accordingly shall place both, 9 August.
The memory of our empresses Pulcheria and Irene, who are held in pious honour, is inscribed in our supplement to the printed Menaea of the Greeks, from the Sirmond-Chifflet manuscripts. The first is venerated among the Latins on the day 10 September; the second is inscribed in the aforesaid Menaea on the 13th of this month. See therefore the days 13 August and 10 September.
"Likewise of Juliana, Dyomada, Memmia, Agape and other martyrs," is the present-day connection of Greven alone, after Suffronius of Antioch, among the Usuardine auctaria, altogether unknown to other Martyrologists, so that I do not see that it could have flowed from anywhere other than from what was cited in the annotations on the Acts of St. Afra at the 5th day of this month, where these four or so are counted here and there in the number of XXV Martyrs, whom some judge to be assigned to Rome, others to Augsburg; which matter will have to be inquired into on 12 August.
St. Mamas, martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia, we long since noted is marked on this day in the Florus published by our predecessors, but belongs to 17 August.
Glycerius, bishop of Couserans in Aquitaine, Saussay with an eulogy and Castellanus expressly enter on this day, and they would have him be the same as Licerius (in French Licar), where, however, the Sainte-Marthe brothers in Gallia Christiana accurately distinguish the two; and they acknowledge indeed that the elder subscribed the council of Agde, but show that he is different from the younger Licerius, who flourished under Charles Martel, honouring this Licerius alone with the title of Saint, as one who is venerated also among the Usuardine auctaria, on the day on which the whole matter can be examined more accurately, 27 August.
"St. Sozon of Nicomedia, cast into the fire and coming out without injury, is consummated in peace," from the great Menaea of the Greeks published in print; the two little verses which are added singing that the martyr Sozon stood forth as another Salamander against the flame: whose end was outside the fire. A martyr of the same name at Pompeiopolis is announced in the Roman Martyrology on the day 7 September, who, cast into the fire, is said to have given up his spirit. In the Menologium which Cardinal Sirleto made Latin from the Greek it is narrated on the said day that, from Lycaonia, he was converted to the faith of Christ, etc.; likewise that, hanged on a tree and beaten, he gave up his spirit to God. If on account of these diversities you judge that he is to be distinguished from today's, let it suffice to have noted these things about today's, and to have referred the reader to the day which I mentioned, 7 September.
The translation of St. Froilan, bishop, at León in Spain, is noted by Ferrarius on this day; but he advises that the natal day is solemnly celebrated on 5 October.
"St. Narcissus, patriarch of Jerusalem, consummated in peace," is noted in the great Menaea published in print: of whom the Roman Martyrology on the day 29 October.
The translation of St. Florinus, confessor, at Chur in Raetia (commonly the Grisons) is announced by Ferrarius in the general Catalogue, citing Galesinius, by whom, however, he is called Florianus, and who also observes that the natal day of the Saint is kept on the day on which treatment will also be given of this translation, the fifteenth day before the Kalends of December, or 17 November.
St. Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia, is entered on this day by Ferrarius from Maurolycus and from Petrus in the Catalogue, who, however, frankly confesses that in the Tables of the church of Aquileia and in the Roman Martyrology he is marked on 2 December.
Erkantrude, virgin, is marked on this day in a Benedictine Kalendar, better entered, I think, by Bucelinus on 14 May, on which day she was referred by our predecessors to the day on which St. Burgundofara is venerated, 7 December.
Noticed an error, have a suggestion, or want to share a thought? Let me know.