ON ST. AEMILIANUS, BISHOP AND CONF.,
AT CYZICUS ON THE HELLESPONT.
Ninth century.
His cult from the Greek records and the Roman Martyrology, a eulogy, his age.
Aemilianus, bishop and confessor, at Cyzicus on the Hellespont (S.)
J. P.
The Latin Church venerates this holy Prelate with an annual cult, Veneration among the Greeks: having followed the Greek. And in various Calendars of the latter indeed his memory is inscribed, namely in the Sirletian Menologium, and in the great printed Menaea, with a short eulogy in both; but the Menaea add besides these verses:
Ψυχῆς πολὺν θεὶς Αἰμιλιανὸς λόγον, Τῆς σαρκὸς ἠλόγησεν ἄχρι καὶ τέλους. Ὀγδόῃ Αἰμιλιανοῦ ὀστέα δέξετ᾽ ἄρουρα.
He who had such great care for the soul's salvation Neglected the goods of the body to the end of life. On the eighth the earth receives the bones of Aemilianus.
The Typicum published under the name of St. Sabas, the Menaeum of Chifflet, the Slavo-Russian Sparwenfeldian Menologium, and the illustrated August of the Muscovites in our work before volume 1 of May, page XXXIX, mark him. Finally the Menologium of the emperor Basil, after it has premised the Saint's memory, praises him with this eulogy, which from the Greek runs thus:
[2] Our holy father, and great hieromartyr and confessor Aemilianus, in the times of the iconoclast emperors was bishop of the city of Cyzicus. a eulogy: But he shone forth not only in religion, in knowledge, and in the other gifts which befit genuine pontiffs; but also by mercy, by an affection of compassion, and by kindness he exercised patience of mind. But he had a divine zeal for the orthodox faith, and freely accused those who did not adore and venerate the holy and worshipful images, calling them heretics and enemies of Christ. But after he had been accused by the enemies of truth before Leo the hater of Christ, they seize him and set him bound before him; and, having been first subjected to a thousand hardships, then punished with exile, and having endured many trials in exile, he made an end of living. I have spoken of the Saint's cult among the Greeks; now understand what it is among the Latins.
[3] The Roman Martyrology announces his annual memory in these words: his cult among the Latins. At Cyzicus on the Hellespont, of holy Aemilianus the bishop, who, having suffered much for the cult of the sacred images from the emperor Leo, at last ended his life in exile. Molanus in the additions to his Usuard published in the year 1573 has thus briefly: On the eighth day, of holy Aemilianus the confessor at Cyzicus. Concerning the age in which he lived, these things occur.
[4] He flourished under Leo the Armenian, who reigned from the year 813 until 820. This is proved from the great Menaea of the Greeks at the day VIII of March, where in the eulogy of St. Theophylact, bishop of Nicomedia, we have these things, He lived under Leo the Armenian, not under the Isaurian. which from the Greek run thus: The great Nicephorus, after he had summoned to himself the choicest of the prelates, Aemilianus of Cyzicus, together with the others enumerated in the same place, and blessed Theophylact, betakes himself to the impious and apostate emperor; namely Leo the Armenian, from the Life of St. Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople, in our work at the day XIII of March, volume 11 of the said month, page 293. Consult besides what has been said concerning St. Theophylact of Nicomedia in volume 1 of March, page 787. That that meeting happened in the year 815, and that the bishops were then sent into exile by Leo the Armenian, not in the year 814, in which the same meeting is reported by Baronius; we advised in the volume 1 just cited, page 788, number 7; besides this, that the cause of the images first began to be agitated in the year 815, and that the persecution against their worshippers was then stirred up, Pagi proves in the Baronian Critique at the year 814, numbers 2 and 3. Further, we have long since wondered at another σφάλμα μνημονικόν lapse of memory of the same Most Eminent founder of the Ecclesiastical Annals, when, in place of Leo the Armenian, under whom Theophylact confessed the faith of Christ (concerning whom above), and therefore our St. Aemilianus, according to what has been said, in the ninth century, he describes at the year of Christ 733, number 2, Leo the Isaurian as the emperor raging against the worshippers of the sacred images. Concerning these things, then, we have written there long since; but to this point especially belongs what occurs in the same most wise parent of the Ecclesiastical Annals, among the things which he narrates at the year 731, number 5: where among others who were cast into exile by Leo the Isaurian for the cause of orthodox truth, there is placed a most holy man who had succeeded St. Germanus in the episcopate of Cyzicus, Aemilianus: whose exile there is nothing which compels us to defer beyond the said year 815, in which I said that other prelates were punished with that penalty.
[5] He stood for Ecclesiastical authority. For these reasons, that noble utterance of our most holy Bishop, which he undauntedly hurled in the emperor's face for the sake of ecclesiastical authority, Baronius reporting it from Theostericus, an author of that time (concerning whom in our work, volume 1 of April, page 253), at the year of Christ 814, must be attached to the year immediately following. And it stands thus: Aemilianus, bishop of Cyzicus, said, If the question, emperor, is an ecclesiastical one, as you have said, let it be inquired into in the church, as is the custom. For from of old and from the very beginning ecclesiastical questions are inquired into in churches, not in royal palaces. So he there, from the deeds of St. Nicetas in Surius at the III of April. They are extant also in our work from a Vatican Greek manuscript in the same volume one of April, page 254 and following.