ON STS. QUIRIACUS AND HIS XXIV COMPANIONS, MARTYRS,
AT AUGSBURG.
In the year CCCIV.
CommentaryQuiriacus, Martyr, at Augsburg (S.)
His XXIV Companions, Martyrs, in the same place
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
Thierry Ruinart, in the Sincere and Select Acts of the First Martyrs, reports also the Acts or martyrdom of St. Afra and of her mother and three maidservants; as we too have given at the day V of August; but he notes at the end, page 503: In most manuscript codices there are here reported another XXV Martyrs, as though they consummated their martyrdom at Augsburg on the same day as Afra (nay rather, as Hilaria). It seems that these were from manuscript copies But in the Fossatensian codex they are said to have suffered "not far from the city of Rome"; and by the common closing formula, "Who reigns," etc., they are separated from the Passion of St. Afra. In the most ancient royal codex, however, and in Mombritius, that addition is altogether wanting; which in certain codices is shorter, in others is found fuller. He himself meanwhile omits it altogether, as a narrative distinct from the Passion of Afra. Welser in his codex read three additions subjoined to the Martyrdom of St. Afra: the first concerning St. Afer, the second concerning St. Dionysius (which are found nowhere else), and the third, which runs thus:
[2] of the Acts of St. Afra the Martyr On that same day also, at the same city (namely Augsburg, which alone precedes), there suffered another twenty-five for the name of Christ by the cutting off of the head: that is, Quiriacus, Largio, Crescentianus, Eutychianus, Charito, Philadelphus, Peter; and these women, Nimonia, Juliana, Diomeda, Leonis, and Agape; and another XIII, whose names God knows, blessing by a good confession the Lord who glorifies his own. To whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. We at the day V of August, in the Annotations on the Acts of St. Afra, page 59, gave the same addition from our very ancient codex P. Ms. 20; but a little differently, and especially with this beginning: But on the same day at the city of Rome, another XXV, etc. The same, but differently and much more contracted, George Wicel found and published in his book On the Divine Ones both of the Old and of the New Testament, according to the Basel edition of the year 1557, page 249; where he has only this: On the same day there suffered also, not far from the city of Rome, Cyriacus, Largus, Smaragdus, Memnia, Julia, and many others were beheaded for the name of Christ.
[3] From some codex of this sort we think Usuard drew what he subjoined on this day to the announcement of Sts. Hilara, Digna, Eumenia, and Euprepia at the city of Augsburg, in these words: Usuard was the first on this day to enter it in a Martyrology, There suffered likewise on the same day in the aforesaid city Quiriacus, Largio, Crescentianus, Nimmia, Juliana, with twenty others; and what he himself is believed afterward to have corrected in this place in his own autograph of Saint-Germain: On the same day there suffered at Rome under the prefect Pertinax Quiriacus, Largio, Crescentianus, Nimmia, Juliana, with twenty others. Doubtless from Ado he believed that Hilaria, Digna, Eumenia, and Euprepia suffered on the day XII of August; but from their Acts, or rather from the appendix to the Acts appended in a certain codex of his, he learned that on the same day our XXV Martyrs suffered: these therefore he judged should be marked on the same day, even if they had not been noted by Ado. Certainly I can by conjecture reach no other source of this Usuardine announcement, since no Martyrologist before him is known to have placed it on this day. Whence I do not know how Ado lately slipped from my pen in the Annotations on the Passion of St. Afra, letter m: for I meant to name Usuard alone. And indeed, as the codices which have this addition differ from one another in it exceedingly,
varying about the place of the martyrdom, which some assert took place at Rome, most at Augsburg, so in the same matter Usuard was not consistent with himself; namely, according as he judged that now this, now that codex should rather be followed.
[4] You will ask which eulogy of Usuard we prefer: the first, as having suffered at Augsburg: by which our Martyrs are said to have suffered at Augsburg; or the second, by which they are attributed to Rome under the prefect Pertinax, not hitherto heard of or noted elsewhere, so far as we know? We answer that for more than one reason the first seems to us to be preferred; because this has been retained hitherto in all the copies (one or two excepted) of the Usuardine Martyrology distributed of old among so many churches through Europe, as was observed in Sollier's Usuard: because (to say nothing of Peter of Equilio and very many others) that same reading was adopted by the reformers of the Roman Martyrology which we now use: because to the same agrees the addition to the Acts of St. Afra, on Ruinart's testimony, in most manuscript codices; but those few which in it have Rome instead of Augsburg owe this perhaps to smattering copyists who, on account of the similarity of certain names, thought that the present Martyrs should be confounded with those Roman ones of whom we treated at the day VIII of this month; as appears most of all in the Wicelian copy; whereas they are plainly different, and suffered not only on another day but even in another month than Hilaria with her maidservants, namely on the XVI of March, as Usuard after others confesses. Finally, to conclude in few words, there is no tradition, no memory, no trace of antiquity, whence it may be known that these XXV Martyrs were ever translated from Rome to the Augsburg basilica of Sts. Udalric and Afra; and yet in this they were dug up again after the age of Usuard (nay, and of Tado, archbishop of Milan, whom Mabillon mentions in his letter on the cult of unknown Saints, §21); who therefore would doubt that they suffered there, and were there first buried, where at length they were found — that is, at Augsburg, not at Rome, not elsewhere?
[5] where in the 12th century they were found And this invention indeed ought to be of most certain historical credit, since it is asserted by Udalscalc, who without doubt saw it; as being the subject of Egino, abbot of St. Udalric's, and his inseparable companion, and afterward his successor, greatly commended for his learning. Thus therefore he, in Canisius, Ancient Readings, volume 2, page 215, after he had recorded the relics acquired by Egino from elsewhere, says (with the syntax a little wrenched): When these had been brought to Augsburg, the Saints HITHERTO LYING HIDDEN THERE, namely Dionysius the first bishop of that same city, and Quiriacus with his twenty-four fellow Martyrs, are at last found — as though they had risen up to greet well-known fellow citizens. These, I say, being passed over as though new, he appointed that the Invention of blessed Afra, now almost abolished by ancient oblivion, should be solemnly celebrated: he appointed that the festival of the twenty-four (nay, twenty-five, as he presently reckoned) aforesaid Martyrs, who suffered together with holy Hilaria, should none the less be venerated on one day. Here you have our Martyrs suffering together with St. Hilaria, certainly at Augsburg; you have them lying hidden "there hitherto" (that is, from the time of the martyrdom until the prefecture of Egino, which he held from the year of Christ 1109 to 1122); you have them then at last "rising up," or coming forth into the light from sepulchers still unknown and from the rest of so many centuries; you have them finally adorned with a cult and feast decreed thenceforward, common with St. Hilaria, as has already been said, and even then yearly among the Udalricians.
[6] and they began to be venerated with a yearly feast. And would that he who touched in words so few, and not altogether clear, a matter new in his own age and commonly known, had foreseen that it would one day be ancient! He would surely have given, instead of so meager a compendium, the entire history of this invention and elevation. But lest you doubt of the place and sense of this narrative of Udalscalc, behold for you an interpreter of it sufficiently ancient, Sigismund the Religious, in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Augsburg, part 2, chapter 1, writing of Egino according to the opinion of Udalscalc, whom he cites: But when he (Egino) applied himself more diligently with the Brethren also to regular discipline, the Saints rise up. (What is this? Hear what follows.) For the body of St. Dionysius, martyr and bishop, is found; likewise that of Quiriacus with the twenty-four Martyrs. Therefore "to rise up" sounds the same to Udalscalc as "to be found." Concerning the feast too Sigismund says: He (the same Egino) instituted … that the feast of St. Hylaria and of the others, and also of the aforesaid Martyrs together, should be solemnly celebrated on that day on which the dedication of the cathedral church is kept; namely in the monastery of Sts. Udalric and Afra: for this feast seems first to have passed to the cathedral church from the year 1548, as was said before where we treated of Sts. Hilaria and her companions, number 2; and that on the same day, the XII of August: for now the feast of the dedication is kept there on the XXVIII of September.
[7] This feast, I say: for it did not so seem to Welser in his Commentary on the Passion of St. Afra and her companions, number 85, when he judges that ignorance of the deeds done by these blessed Martyrs is the reason why in the church of Augsburg they are not commemorated yearly on a fixed day. on the 12 of August; on which, however, they did not suffer. For they are indeed commemorated on the same day on which St. Hilaria is commemorated, the XII of August, at least according to the proper Offices of that church reprinted in the year 1638, where in the third Lesson of the second nocturn these things are recited yearly concerning them: On which day (the day before the Ides of August) also Quiriacus, Eutychianus, Largio, Crescentianus, Carito, Philadelphus, Peter, together with the pious women Nimmia, Juliana, Diomeda, Leonis, and Agape, and thirteen others, were slain for the name of Christ by the cutting off of the head. Moreover, since they were slain on the same day as holy Hilaria, the day XII of August can no more truly be their birthday than Hilaria's; as you will gather from our Preliminary Commentary on the Acts of St. Afra, number 47. See also what we have already given concerning St. Hilaria. Further, Welser in his praised Commentary at number 83 found three names added to those already mentioned, namely Emblasius, Euria, and Fausta. Consult him, if you please, discoursing learnedly at length concerning these Martyrs from number 80. We return to the invention.
[8] That the one which happened under Egino was the first; because concerning any earlier one nothing more is known than concerning any preceding translation of those same Martyrs. the replacing of the bodies after the first invention, And lest this should seem incredible to anyone, since it is believed to have happened in the basilica which was built long after their contest and first burial, I should wish it to be observed, according to the opinion of Welser at the place cited, first timidly proposed, then more strongly confirmed in the Affairs of Augsburg, book 7, at the year of Christ 303, that that plot, or the space which that basilica afterward occupied, had been dedicated to the burying of the bodies of Christians long before any church began to be built upon it. There our Martyrs are believed to have been then buried; nor were they found afterward when the basilica was set upon the place; because digging is then wont to be made only where the foundations of the building are to be laid, the intermediate spaces of the ground being untouched, in which their tomb could easily lie hidden however long. But where Egino replaced the bodies of the holy Martyrs when they were found, Khamm teaches, Augsburg Hierarchy, part 1, page 62, at the same time asserting that they were thirty-three in number, among which I think are also numbered those which had been found again under Embrico, concerning which the Augsburg Chronicle in Freher, volume 1, page 348, at the year of Christ 1064, says: The church of St. Udalric and St. Afra is begun from the foundations. Many bodies of Saints are found: Khamm, I say, teaches there that Egino from these chose the body of St. Dionysius, bishop of Augsburg, and of St. Cyriacus the martyr … and also seven other entire bodies from the same company of holy Martyrs, and afterward honorably placed the aforesaid bodies … beneath an altar dedicated to the honor of St. Dionysius, the bones of the remaining twenty-four Martyrs being replaced in their former place.
[9] Meanwhile, nearly a century and a half running on (the same continues), a second invention, in the year 1258, frequent misfortunes utterly buried the memory of the sepulcher of St. Dionysius the bishop; until in the year MCCLVIII his sacred remains, kept together with the body of St. Quiriacus in a leaden sarcophagus beneath the destroyed altar, and the aforesaid other VII bodies of holy Martyrs placed in a wooden sarcophagus, are found, bishop Hartmann on the I day of the month of September of the said year MCCLVIII consecrating a new altar in honor of Sts. Dionysius and Quiriacus, and translating to the newly erected altar the aforesaid IX bodies (namely two in their leaden, but the other VII bodies of the holy Martyrs becomingly arranged in their wooden sarcophagus). Hence yearly the church of Augsburg keeps by an ecclesiastical Office not the day of the martyrdom of St. Dionysius, but the recurring day of the aforesaid translation, the XXVI of February, Pope Alexander IV, in the IV year of his Pontificate, imparting special indulgences to the said day, the XXVI of February. As we too said in February, volume III, page 633. I confess, however, that I wonder at a translation separated by so many months from the consecration of the altar.
[10] and a third These things are illustrated by the description of the third invention, which happened in the year 1466 under abbot Michael Stamham, when he was laying the foundations for a new and more spacious basilica. Concerning this Sigismund the Religious, then living, says thus in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Augsburg, part 2, chapter 6: When also the altar of St. Dionysius, or called of Hylaria (for so it had now commonly begun to be called), had to be removed, there is found in it too a leaden sarcophagus filled with relics of Saints, which by the lord abbot and the Convent, a procession being made, is carried into the sacristy; and, opening it with trembling, they find such a document: "From the Incarnation of Christ MCCLVIII this altar was consecrated by the venerable Hartmann, bishop of Augsburg, in honor of the holy martyr and bishop Dionysius, brother of St. Hylaria, and of St. Quiriacus the martyr of the company of St. Aphra, whose bodies were found together. And there have been placed in the aforesaid altar the relics of those Saints," etc. N. (Sigismund signifies that the names of each were here set down: for he adds:) And thus the slip specified thirty-two particles. Likewise in the tomb behind the altar are found seven bodies of holy Martyrs, who together underwent martyrdom for Christ.
[11] in the year 1466. The Brethren, reading these things and at the same time perceiving the two seals of the aforesaid bishop, marveled; and, counsel being taken, a day having first been appointed for people and clergy, when a huge multitude had assembled, a procession being ordered, the Brethren, adorned in their vestments, approach the tomb, and, leave being given to the masons, it is opened, and there is found a wooden planking, as though lately placed, lined within with white linen cloth, above it the bishop's seal, and the aforesaid bodies of the Saints. With what dancing for joy of the people they were first kissed, and afterward carried into the sacristy, is incredible … On the following days, digging deeper, they found timbers already consumed by rot, and the iron bands with which they had been joined entire, and around them bones rising to nearly thirty bodies. These were
those Martyrs revealed in the time of abbot Egino, of whom mention was made above. Finally I have read that the translation of St. Dionysius and of the others was confirmed by Pope Alexander, although every Martyr is of himself enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints by his own blood. Thus far he. The slip of the year 1250, which he here mentions, is recited in full in German, not without some discrepancy, in Stengel in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Augsburg published in the vernacular, book 1, chapter 8, and in Latin in Khamm, Augsburg Hierarchy, part 3, page 81: and in both places the relics mentioned in the slip are said to have been enclosed in that altar on the very day of the dedication of that same altar; and among the other names of Saints reckoned in it are read: Blessed Largio, Crescentianus, Eutychianus, Charito, Philadelphus, Peter; Nimmia, Juliana, Diomeda, Leonis, Agape, and thirteen others whose names God knows, all having suffered on one day. That this treasure remained in the same basilica in the year 1483 Sigismund testifies in the appendix of his Chronicle: that it was thereafter partly divided into various and precious reliquaries, the shapes of these being engraved, Hertfelder shows in the Basilica of Sts. Udalric and Afra from page 65 to 140.