ON THE HOLY ROMAN MARTYRS
HIPPOLYTUS, CONCORDIA, AND XIX OTHERS.
Under the emperor Valerian.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Hippolytus, Martyr, at Rome (St.)
Concordia, Martyr, at Rome (St.)
XIX other Martyrs, at Rome
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
§ I. The cult from the calendars; the public veneration; a martyr of the same name distinguished from ours.
[1] From the most ancient times the name of St. Hippolytus has been exceedingly renowned in the Catholic Church, The name of St. Hippolytus is celebrated in the calendars, although in several documents it is not so marked that it is clear that today's Martyr and the soldier converted by St. Lawrence is the one indicated in them. In others, however, today's Saint is so clearly and distinctly expressed that no room for doubt is left. The most ancient Bucherian Calendar records him on this day thus: On the Ides of August, of Hippolytus in the Tiburtine, and of Pontian in that of Callistus. The Martyrology published by Florentinius: At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyr Ypolitus, of Pontian the bishop, etc. The Carthaginian, in Mabillon, volume 3 of the Analecta, page 399: Ides of August, of St. Hippolytus. The ancient Roman Calendar, which Edmond Martène published in print, volume 5 of the New Thesaurus of Anecdota, column 76: On the XIII day of the month (of August), the birthday of St. Yppolitus. The Frontonian and Allatian also commemorate him, but without the title of martyr. The old or lesser Roman Martyrology has it thus: At Rome, of Hippolytus the martyr with his household, and of St. Concordia his nurse. Ado: At Rome, of St. Hippolytus the martyr, under the emperor Decius, Valerian being prefect. Usuard: At Rome, of blessed Ypolitus the martyr, who for the glory of his confession, by the order of Valerian the governor, being bound by the feet to the necks of untamed horses, and so dragged through the thistle-field and the briars, gave up his spirit. There suffered also Concordia his nurse, who before him, being beaten with leaded scourges, won her martyrdom; and nineteen others of his household, who were beheaded together. These things the Martyrology which has been published by us under the name of Bede had reported in almost the same words: On the Ides, at Rome, of St. Ypolitus, who in the time of Decius, being bound by the feet to the necks of untamed horses, and so dragged through thistles and briars, gave up his spirit. And of Concordia his nurse, who before him, beaten with leaded scourges, is martyred. And of nineteen others of his household, who were beheaded together. Rabanus and Notker agree with Bede. In the latter, however, it is not rightly said: And of NINE others of his household. In the Passion of St. Hippolytus in Mombritius they are eighteen. To these of Wandelbert I add a short metrical eulogy:
"On the Ides Lawrence receives to the stars Hippolytus his comrade, Who suffered for Christ in a like contest."
[2] To the commending of St. Hippolytus's renown in the Church there conduce also the things which are had concerning him in the Sacramentaries of Thomasius and Menard; in the Sacramentaries, and in the Roman Martyrology as likewise the fact that his yearly veneration, as I noted above, persists in the Roman Church by a rite not merely public, but also that the Roman Breviary inserts his combat into the ninth lesson of the ecclesiastical Office, today's Martyrology announcing him thus: At Rome, of blessed Hippolytus the martyr, who for the glory of his confession under the emperor Valerian, after other torments, his feet being bound to the necks of untamed horses, and cruelly dragged through the thistle-field and the briars, gave up his spirit with his whole body torn asunder. There suffered also on the same day blessed Concordia his nurse, who before him, beaten with leaded scourges, passed to the Lord; and nineteen others of his household, who were beheaded outside the Tiburtine gate, and buried together with him in the Veran field.
[3] Concerning him also the Greeks Nor indeed did the Greeks wish St. Hippolytus to be excluded from their calendars; for on the tenth day of August the Anthology announces him by name together with Sts. Lawrence and Sixtus. Add the great printed Menaea with these little verses:
Τὸν Ἱππόλυτον ἱπποδέσμιον βλέπω Ἐναντίον πάσχοντα τῇ κλήσει πάθος.
"Hippolytus, I see thee bound by the horses' yoke, Suffering a death contrary to what thy name sounds."
Although the contriver of these little verses thrusts upon us this graceless and far-fetched allusion, I shall nevertheless attempt to explain it after our accustomed manner. Because experience has taught that the Menaea printed at Venice in the year 1607, which I use, swarm with very many errors, in place of τοῦ κλήσει I have put τῇ κλήσει, and for ἱπποδέμιον, which stands in the said printing, I have substituted ἱπποδέσμιον; and by that I understand him who is held bound upon horses. But Hippolytus, from what is to be said at number 13, is he who is loosed limb from limb by horses: now to be loosed by horses, and to be held bound upon horses, although both befell our Saint, seem nevertheless to carry with them a certain opposition, if the words λυτός and δέσμιος be taken in themselves, apart from the history which underlies them. And to this opposition I suspect the poet had regard. Certainly what else he can have meant I do not sufficiently grasp. Perhaps there will be some one among the learned Greeks to whom something better may occur. But of these trifles more than enough.
[4] [The public veneration among the Spaniards: a sacred building in Holland under the name of St. Hippolytus.] That St. Hippolytus was held in singular veneration among the Spaniards is gathered from the Mozarabic Breviary (concerning which we have noted more things in the historical-chronological Treatise prefixed to the sixth volume of July, on the Mozarabic liturgy, chapter 8, §1), in which Breviary this holy Martyr has a proper Office, and the following hymn, here corrected from various blunders where we judged the sense to require it, for the common benefit, that he who reads it may understand it. "Be present, O peoples, at the famous feasts which the happy circuit of time brings round again, returning upon itself on its revolving axle: render praise to the starry Prince. For here Ypolitus, despising the things of earth in time, mounts to the snow-white heavens: when, loosing from the body a soul still living, he merited to receive the heavenly laurel. While he was here the warlike leader of a company, by Caesar's orders he received into prison a martyr to be kept, who by the sign of the cross gives to blind eyes their lost light. Hippolytus, beholding the favoring signs, straightway believes in Christ the Lord, and spurning the impious idols of the demonic teaching, joined to the worshippers of Christ, rebukes them with his words. Then Caesar, boiling with a raging onset, commands his holy mouth to be broken with a stone. Far leap the fragments of his teeth: but his voice proclaims the Only-begotten as the only one. The craftsman arms the iron with burning fires, the points of the thorn-bearing thistle; the Martyr's inward parts, utterly ruined, pour forth rivers of rosy blood. Thence they bind him fast to the backs of fierce horn-hoofed steeds; dragged over rough places he suddenly left his living breath, whereby he had power to conquer the dread world. For this we suppliantly entreat, O God the King of all, asking that the illustrious Martyr may stand by us wretched as our patron, and obtain for those who confess pardon of the guilt of their heart. May life be rich and abounding in fruits: may fitting prosperity of things prevail: may war perish: may good peace flow forth: may virtues flourish, may crimes pass away. To the unbegotten Father be greatest glory: be it equal to the Begotten and to the Paraclete, who alone holds the sceptre everlastingly, living through the ages perpetual. Amen." Let it be permitted here in passing to note that a sacred building under the name of St. Hippolytus exists at Delft, a city of Holland; as we have from Raissius in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium, page 249.
[5] Here some one will ask, who that Hippolytus was who from the most ancient times has been honored on this day in the Catholic Church, Various points being set forth whether the soldier converted to Christ by St. Lawrence, or the priest of the same name of Ostia or Porto, who is marked with the title of bishop in the Roman Martyrology on the twenty-second day of August? The reason for asking is: 1. Because that Hippolytus of Ostia or Porto was, from the fourth century onward, toward the end of which the poet Prudentius flourished, honored on this thirteenth day at Rome with a most celebrated cult and with a very great concourse of peoples. 2. Because that same man consummated his martyrdom by the same manner of death as today's Soldier of the same name. 3. Because he was buried among the Romans. These various points we are plainly taught from the praised Prudentius, from whose hymn XI, which is inscribed to bishop Valerian, I cull these lines. And of the day, indeed, these:
"If I remember well, most beautiful Rome honors this man On the Ides of the month of August, as she herself By ancient usage names the day."
Of the place of the martyrdom Prudentius sings thus:
"He is set before the mad governor, who was then vexing the worshippers of Christ through the Tiberine Ostia, Not content to stain the ground within the walls of lofty Rome with the constant slaughter of the just, Since he saw the Janiculum already drenched, the forums, the rostra, the Suburra, overflowing with a flood of blood. They had carried their rage forth to the shore of the Tyrrhenian coast, and to the places which the sea-port holds nearest."
[6] And after a few things interposed, he then subjoins this concerning the manner of death: of another St. Hippolytus the martyr
"To him as he raged about, before the lofty tribunal there is suddenly offered an old man entangled in bonds. The young men crowding round roared with a shout that he himself was the head of the Christian peoples. If that head were speedily destroyed, all the hearts of the common folk would of their own accord be consecrated to the Roman gods. They demand an unwonted kind of death, and a new punishment is devised, by whose example others may tremble. He, sitting with head thrown back, says, 'What is he called?' They affirm that he is called Hippolytus. 'Let him be Hippolytus, then; let him shake and trouble the yoked steeds, and let him perish torn asunder by wild horses.'"
[7] by idioms, The same hymn-writer, having pursued the manner of the martyrdom, speaks thus of the traces left after it, and indeed as an eye-witness:
"The rough field with its thorn-bearing stems catches up the fragments torn piecemeal from the ruined body. Part hangs from the topmost crags, part clings to the brambles: in one part the leaves are red, in another the ground is drenched. A wall painted over holds the image of the crime, on which a many-colored pigment sets forth the whole outrage. A painted figure above the tomb is vivid with clear shadows, representing the bloody limbs of the man dragged along. I saw the dripping tops of the rocks, most excellent father, and the purple marks set upon the briars."
[8] which Prudentius expressed in a certain hymn, The poet then adds in the same place the gathering of the torn-off limbs of the sacred body, and afterward speaks thus of the tomb among the Romans:
"A place is chosen by measuring for the tomb: they leave Ostia, Rome is pleasing, which is to hold the holy ashes. Not far from the outermost rampart, by the tilled suburbs"
" A crypt sunk in hidden hollows lies open," etc.
Of the public veneration he pours forth the following, not from hearsay only or from sight, but from his own experience:
"Wonderful is the piety of the place, and the altar ready for those who pray: it aids the hope of men with calm prosperity. Here, sick with the corruptions both of mind and of body, as often as I prayed prostrate, I obtained help. That I rejoice in my return, that it has been permitted me to embrace thee, venerable priest, that I write these very things: I know that I owe it to Hippolytus," etc.
Concerning the excellent adornment of the place, the singular devotion, and the most abundant concourse of peoples, I forbear to describe Prudentius at greater length; do thou, reader, consult him. In the same place also thou wilt read that Hippolytus was converted from the Novatian schism to the Catholic faith.
[9] it is inquired which of the two is meant We have therefore from what has been said two Martyrs of the same name, distinguished from one another by so many and such vivid marks that they cannot be confounded together. Now, to return to what was said above, let us examine which of the two is set forth to be celebrated on this day in the ancient sacred calendars. In favor of the solemn cult of St. Hippolytus the priest among the Romans on the Ides of August there fight the words of Prudentius, "If I remember well," etc. And indeed, how should he not remember well, considering the foregoing circumstances of the matter, which as an eye-witness he recalls so skillfully, vividly, and distinctly? But this is no hindrance to St. Hippolytus the martyr and soldier, whom St. Lawrence begot in Christ, having also been held on this same day in public veneration among the Romans, and that from the most ancient times: as we shall now attempt to prove. For when the most ancient Bucherian Calendar adds to its announcement, which we gave above, the distinct words "in the Tiburtine," it seems to designate this man: for along the Tiburtine way lies the cemetery of Bl. Cyriaca in the Veran field; where now stands the famous basilica of St. Lawrence the martyr, as may be seen in Aringhi, volume 2 of Subterranean Rome, book 4, chapter 16. Consult besides the Acts of our Saint, to be subjoined to this Commentary, number 2. Now the Tiburtine way is by far most different from the City or from the Ostian way, which is shown to be indicated by Prudentius on occasion of his own Hippolytus, translated to Rome, by these very words of his:
"A place is chosen by measuring for the tomb: they leave Ostia, Rome is pleasing, which is to hold the holy ashes."
[10] The old Gothic Missal, in book 3 of the Gallican Liturgy published by Mabillon, in ancient documents: page 278, number LX, although it reports nothing of the nurse and household of our Hippolytus, nevertheless expresses him in clear characters in the immolation of the Mass, speaking thus: "It is truly meet… O God, who didst suddenly make blessed Yppolitus, while yet occupied in the service of a tyrant, the companion of Lawrence. Who, kindled with a spiritual ardor, while he truly confesses before the powers thine only-begotten Son our Lord, is subjected to punishments, is bound with chains, is pierced with thistles, is torn asunder by the ferocity of horses: and, having gained the palm of martyrdom, is crowned with perpetual life together with Lawrence, who won him and was his master. Through Christ our Lord." The hymn of the Mozarabs, which we brought forward before, agrees. In St. Augustine, sermon 38 On Divers Matters, in the printing presently to be cited, 316; which, after it had not seemed insipid to the palate of so many learned men, and had remained untouched for so many centuries, yet because it did not please the taste of one single critical censor, in the new edition of the Works of that holy Father published by the Benedictine monks, volume 5 at the end, is now for the first time placed in the Appendix. Nothing in it is worthy of reprehension: except that the style, says Vindingus, indicates that it is not Augustine's. In that sermon, I say, it is read thus: "Lawrence made his own guard Hippolytus a Christian." Nor will I pass by in silence Gregory of Tours, who in book 1, chapter 28, columns 22 and 23 of the History of the Franks in Ruinart's edition, reports these things: "Under Decius (rather, Valerian).. Sixtus, bishop of the Roman Church, and Lawrence the archdeacon, and Hippolytus, were consummated by martyrdom for the confession of the Lord's name."
[11] Today's Champion of ours is also indicated by clear signs by the author of the lesser Roman, and the matter is decided in favor of our Hippolytus. by Ado, by Usuard, and by the others whom we have cited above. It is true, indeed, that the Carthaginian Martyrology in Mabillon, the Hieronymian in Florentinius, the Allatian and Frontonian Calendars, as also the Sacramentaries of Thomasius and Menard, do not append to him those characteristic marks; yet it appears likely to me that those documents also treat of our St. Hippolytus, after the manner customary to the most ancient authors, according to what has been said; for Mabillon indeed, in his notes on the said Carthaginian Martyrology, page 411, judged that today's Saint of ours is marked in it; because in the text of that same Martyrology he says the name of St. Hippolytus is that "of a most renowned Roman martyr." But the things which he adds — "he concerning whom, among others, Prudentius in hymn XI περὶ στεφάνων" — these do not at all agree with our position; as will presently appear. From these things, therefore, we conclude that it seems more probable that there was on this day a most ancient cult of St. Hippolytus the martyr and soldier, in use from the first centuries after his martyrdom, and thence propagated to later centuries. Concerning the other priest of the same name, or, as the modern Roman Martyrology calls him, bishop, there will be place given for treating on the twenty-second day of August, on which he is entered in that same Martyrology: although for the sake of today's St. Hippolytus a few things concerning him remain to be observed in the following paragraph.
§ II. Whether, like the other martyr of the same name, ours was torn asunder by horses; whether Prudentius fused three Hippolytuses into one; the time and the companions of the martyrdom; the burial.
The punishment by which the martyr of Porto of the same name perished, As the name of St. Hippolytus, so far as it is marked in the most ancient calendars, created for us above no slight difficulty, so a new sort of trouble is raised by the manner of death by which he is reported to have perished — the same, namely, as that of his namesake of Ostia or Porto: for each is said to have been torn apart and dragged by untamed horses. As regards the man of Ostia, we have recited Prudentius concerning him above. But concerning our Saint of today his Acts, in Surius mingled with those of Lawrence, narrate these things of the tyrant: "Further, he willed that blessed Hippolytus, bound by the feet to the necks of untamed horses, should be dragged through thistles and briars. And while this was being done, he passed to the Lord." Thus there, in few words; which is confirmed from the hymn of the Mozarabs, from the old Gothic Missal, and from the Martyrologies, according to what was set forth in §1. Hence a question may be raised, whether, as the martyr of that name in Prudentius is reported to have been slain by this punishment, so also ours truly underwent it; or rather whether it was attributed and feigned to him out of the Acts of the other.
[13] is asserted also of our Hippolytus Baronius, in volume 2 of the Ecclesiastical Annals, at the year 261, number 10, judges that that manner of combat truly belongs to our St. Hippolytus, in these words: "Three days after St. Lawrence there suffered at Rome Hippolytus the soldier: to whom his name profited to this end, that, because he was called Hippolytus, after the likeness of that Hippolytus who was betrayed by the wiles of his stepmother Phaedra, he too should be ordered to be torn asunder by untamed horses." The same praised author ascribes the same kind of contest to the Saint in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology on this day. And on the occasion of this passage cited from Baronius, observe in passing the etymology of the name Hippolytus, which is said ἀπὸ τοῦ ἵππου, that is, from a horse, καὶ τοῦ λύειν, which means to loose: as if one should say that Hippolytus is he who is loosed limb from limb by horses, or torn apart. But certain others, more recent, affirm that some things from the Acts of St. Hippolytus, which Prudentius embraced in his hymn, were transferred to this one of ours. Ruinart, in the Admonition to the martyrdom of that other man of the same name, which he inserted in the Sincere and Select Acts of the Martyrs, pages 155 and 156 of the first edition, says: "We think that a twofold Hippolytus is celebrated on this thirteenth day of August: one recorded by Prudentius; the other in truth the companion of blessed Lawrence, to whom some things from the Acts of the first have been attributed." But although he does not there determine distinctly in these words what those "some things" are, we nevertheless judge that he there tacitly indicated the penalty of the contest of which we here treat, common, as we have just seen, to both martyrs. Baillet, in the Lives of the Saints on this day, describing the deeds of both, with his customary bold criticism in censuring the Acts of the Saints, using no circumlocution, roundly denies that punishment to our Hippolytus, when he writes that it was borrowed for him from the martyrdom of the other Hippolytus.
[14] it is asserted. But that that manner of the completed contest, so far as it regards our Martyr, may remain untouched by this censure, it has seemed good to set forth these arguments. 1. The name, as also the day of public cult at Rome, was once common to both, as we have said from Prudentius; what then hinders that the punishment of the sacred combat should have befallen both in common, and that the name of the one as much as of the other gave occasion for it, namely that each should be slain after the likeness of the more ancient Hippolytus, son of Theseus, concerning whom Euripides in the Phaedra? For "to him" (namely to our Hippolytus) "the name of Hippolytus profited, the cruelty of the heathen making sport of it, that from the likeness of the name he should be torn to pieces by a like kind of death"; as was pronounced, on occasion of Hippolytus the soldier, in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology on this day. 2. So many and so ancient testimonies hand down that kind of torment, as is gathered from the foregoing, which express this very thing clearly and distinctly: why then should the censure of some modern prevail over them, so long as it is not proved to be of such a kind as wholly to break their authority? 3. Let possession here obtain; and let it remain so long as it is not convicted of falsity. 4. We do not deny that the Acts of our Soldier are badly joined to the martyrdom of St. Lawrence in Surius, and in not a few places in need of emendation, as may be seen in our Work at the tenth day of August, page 511; but are all the things which are contained in them therefore false and apocryphal? If thou wilt have it so, see whither that censure will end. Since therefore it is our part to defend the Acts of the Saints, so far as is permitted with truth safe, against their rigid Aristarchuses, let the present matter remain in its own state, especially where it is besides confirmed from elsewhere, as thou wilt find above; a matter which not even Tillemont himself, otherwise so hypercritical, attempted to gnaw at, in volume 4 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, note 4 on St. Lawrence. But of these things more than enough for our purpose. Now to other matters.
[15] It is not here without its own value if we observe whether Prudentius, indicated above, fused three Hippolytus-martyrs into one. Baronius holds that three Hippolytuses were confused by Prudentius; Baronius affirms this in more than one place; other more recent writers deny it. The praised father of the Ecclesiastical Annals, in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology on the thirtieth day of January, on which Bl. Hippolytus the priest of Antioch is there marked, says: "It must be known that the same author" (namely Prudentius in hymn XI of the Peristephanon) "fused three Hippolytuses into one, namely the Soldier, the priest, and the bishop; and narrated their deeds as though of one only: for he joined together the deeds of Hippolytus the soldier, whom St. Lawrence baptized, of Hippolytus the priest of Antioch, of whom we treat, and of Hippolytus the bishop of Porto. These, since with the name"
"agree only, they are distinguished by places, by times, by the pursuits of their life, and finally by the kind of their martyrdom. For the Soldier suffered at the City, on the Tiburtine way, under the emperor Valerian, on the thirteenth day of August, dragged and torn asunder by untamed horses. This Hippolytus, of whom we treat, was a priest of Antioch under bishop Fabius, who lived in the times of Decius, as is clear from Eusebius's Chronicle; in whose History also, which the praised Most Eminent one cites, he observes that there are recited the letters of Cornelius the Roman Pontiff and of Dionysius bishop of Alexandria to Fabius of Antioch, who was somewhat inclined to the doctrine of Novatus. But Hippolytus the bishop of Porto, most illustrious in doctrine, under the emperor Alexander, drowned in the waters at the Roman Port, received on the twenty-second day of August the crown of martyrdom." This confusion of those three Martyrs Baronius indicates also in the Notes on the thirteenth day of August; and in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 229, number 9, and at the year 255, number 34. There may also be consulted the Note of that same Most Eminent one on the twenty-second day of the aforesaid month. Concerning this opinion of his about those three Champions fused into one, there is treatment in our Work at the thirtieth day of January, page 1027; which if it be true, then what we have just now disputed concerning one and the same punishment inflicted upon two different men must necessarily fall, as also what we set forth above in §1 concerning the cult common to both of them on this one and the same thirteenth day of August.
[16] but it seems to us more probable But from the present opinion of that most learned man we so far withdraw, with reverence, led by those reasons which the praised Ruinart sets forth on page 155: "It is the common opinion of the more recent writers," he says, "that Prudentius in hymn XI περὶ στεφάνων fused into one, out of three holy Hippolytuses — namely one the bishop of Porto, another the priest of Antioch, and the third the Roman Soldier — a single figure. But since this can be proved by no testimony of the ancients, we think it will be disagreeable to no one if we prefer the authority of Prudentius, a man most illustrious in antiquity, learning, and sincerity, to any conjectures whatsoever of new writers. We therefore acknowledge no other Hippolytus in this hymn of Prudentius except the most celebrated martyr of Porto, to whom we judge all these things which are reported by this author most excellently belong. But although we here vindicate Prudentius from error, we do not nevertheless deny that there were other Hippolytuses besides this one, whom the Church acknowledges and celebrates; namely the man of Porto, of whom more there, and here above." To him Ruinart subjoins the priest of Antioch, confused, as they will have it, by Prudentius with the other two; and although the praised author confesses that he is celebrated in the Martyrologies of Ado, Usuard, Notker and others on the thirtieth day of January — "who, having been somewhat deceived by the schism of Novatus, corrected by the working of the grace of Christ, returned to the charity of the Church, for which and in which he consummated an illustrious martyrdom" — he nevertheless rightly adds that these things do not lessen the authority of Prudentius, which is to be preferred to any of these Martyrologies. And then Hippolytus the priest of Antioch could have been deceived by the error of Novatus, as also the Roman was. Moreover, the words of Prudentius, which in the more recent Roman Martyrology are fitted to Hippolytus of Antioch, are found in no manuscript or printed copy before the recension of Cardinal Baronius. But the Martyrologies which preceded Ado, and several of those which were written after his age, exhibit the bare name of Hippolytus on the thirtieth day of January.
[17] that this was not done by him. Then indeed, after the cited editor of the Acts had represented St. Hippolytus the soldier as different from the priest of the same name, whose Martyrdom he subjoins from Prudentius, and had recited in his favor the Martyrologies and other documents, he refers the laurel of his Hippolytus to about the year 252. And if this be so, a new mark again betrays itself here, whereby our Soldier Hippolytus may be separated from the priest, since he was crowned with martyrdom in the year 258: of which matter I shall speak at once. If this be so, I say; for the things which I have brought forward from Ruinart, both on this matter and on others, may be weighed more maturely in their own time. Add what will presently be said concerning the burial of our Hippolytus. Let this meanwhile suffice us for the present, that we have distinguished those three Champions of the same name, and on the same occasion have set forth that opinion which removes from Prudentius the confusing of them as though of one — which thus far seems to us more probable; especially if with Ruinart we consider the singular gifts of Prudentius, for which the aforesaid author praises him on page 156, and which we forbear to transcribe hither, since they can both be read in that same place, and that sacred poet may be sufficiently known to the learned from elsewhere out of his own writings. Now it is well to add a few things for a fuller knowledge of our Martyr. 1. Let us speak of the year of the martyrdom. 2. Of the companions who are joined to him in the modern Roman Martyrology. 3. Of his tomb, and that of St. Concordia and of the others.
[18] Concerning the first, determine thus. Since St. Sixtus, Pope II and martyr, in the year 258 of the common era, The time at which our Hippolytus suffered; under the reign of Valerian, was wreathed with the laurel of the sacred combat, and St. Lawrence, following him in martyrdom after three days in the same year, according to his Acts washed our St. Hippolytus before his death in the laver of baptism, it follows that the passion of our Saint is to be knit to the aforesaid year and emperor, since he is handed down in the sacred calendars adduced in §1 to have completed the course of his life by martyrdom on the Ides of August. Therefore, in place of Decius as Caesar or emperor, and Valerian as prefect (see above, §1, and the Acts to be given below), substitute Valerian the emperor, under whom the matter befell.
[19] Of the companions of the martyrdom, of whom I had determined to speak in the second place, the companions of the passion; these few things occur. Their ancient cult is had from the Roman Martyrology both old and more recent. The latter sets Concordia with nineteen others; the former marks the same woman, as also the household of our Saint, without a fixed number, which nevertheless is determined from others above in §1. Add the Acts. Among the others ordered to be brought into the sight of the tyrant there occurs the husband of St. Concordia, in Surius, in these words: "There was among them also the nurse of Bl. Hippolytus, Concordia, with her husband." In our transcript from the Utrecht manuscript of St. Saviour's she is likewise noted with her husband, and elsewhere.
[20] Now let us dispatch the third point, which is of the place of burial. the place of burial. Baronius, in the Notes on the thirteenth day of August, says: "There was once an illustrious memorial of St. Hippolytus.. Thence there lay open an approach to the cemetery of Cyriaca, not of Callistus, as some one has supposed. There is there also the basilica of St. Lawrence in the Veran field; not far from which was placed the church of St. Hippolytus, whose ancient traces are said still to remain among the vineyards." The Acts in Surius report thus after the Saint's punishment: "And the bodies of the Saints were left in the field beside the Nympha, at the side of the Veran field, on the Ides of August. On the same night came Justinus the priest, and having gathered their bodies, buried them in that same place"; which place Ado also determines in the Acts to be reprinted below. But the most ancient Bucherian Calendar, as we saw above at number 1, expressly says, "of Hippolytus in the Tiburtine." The place therefore of the burial of our St. Hippolytus seems to be far different from the place of the crypt into which the martyr of the same name is said in Prudentius to have been translated: and although we do not read the individual site of that place designated by him, yet that it stood somewhere in the Tiberine quarter of the City we suspect from these words of the same poet:
"To such coverings is the body of Hippolytus committed, near where an altar dedicated to God is set. That table, the giver of the Sacrament, and likewise set there as the faithful guardian of its own martyr, Keeps the bones in the sepulchre unto the hope of the eternal Judge, and likewise feeds the dwellers by the Tiber with holy banquets. Wonderful is the piety of the place," etc.
Further, from the aforesaid diversity of the place of burial, the opinion of Ruinart which I set forth at number 16 seems to be confirmed. Moreover Pope Adrian I, as Anastasius the Librarian witnesses in his Life, "renewed anew the church of Bl. Nicomedes.. and the cemetery of Bl. Hippolytus the martyr near St. Lawrence, which had decayed from olden times." Now since, on Ado's witness, St. Lawrence was buried "on the Tiburtine way, in the estate of the matron Cyriaca in the Veran field," from what was said at the tenth day of August in the preliminary Commentary on that same Saint, §6; and since near St. Lawrence the cemetery of Bl. Hippolytus is placed by Anastasius the Librarian; to which add Aringhi, Subterranean Rome, book 4, chapter 16, which treats of that same cemetery of Bl. Cyriaca in the Veran field beside the Tiburtine way, where at number 3, from the Acts which he cites, he records that St. Hippolytus was buried in that same place together with nineteen others of his household — with the Roman Martyrology moreover in support, which after the announcement of Bl. Concordia his nurse, and of those other nineteen, adds that they were buried "together with him in the Veran field"; since finally the summary of the Martyrdom of St. Concordia, to be reprinted below from Ado, reports thus of her body: "He took it up (the discourse is of St. Justinus) and buried it beside the bodies of the martyrs Hippolytus and the others" — since, I say, these things are so, it follows that, according to what has been said, there was one and the same place of burial for St. Hippolytus, St. Concordia, and the other Martyrs.
§ III. The famous translation of St. Hippolytus into Gaul; miracles.
The body of today's St. Hippolytus In our volume III of the month of May, at the twelfth day of the same month, among the Passed Over, pages 3 and 4, it was said that the translation of the body of St. Hippolytus the martyr, from Rome to Soissons to the church of St. Medard, and thence to Paris to the church of St. Denis, is marked in the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay; and that the tempest of a vast mortality then ceased, is indicated in a manuscript of the queen of Sweden. His birthday is the thirteenth of August. That translation, therefore, since it has been deferred to this place, rightly demands that we now report and weigh its history. Saussay writes these things at the day mentioned: "In the famous monastery of St. Denis, the commemoration of the conveying of the most sacred body of the blessed martyr Hippolytus: when, in the reign of Charles the Sixth, the shrine of that same heavenly one, carried in solemn supplication, not only checked but utterly extinguished the pestilence which was devouring all Gaul. In perennial memorial of which thing, every year on this day in the chapel where this holy Martyr rests a solemn liturgy is celebrated. Likewise and on the same day at Soissons (where the body of that same holy Hippolytus, brought from Rome, first rested, in the monastery of St. Medard: from which it was afterward translated to the aforesaid royal monastery of St. Denis), the commemoration of the first translation of the same, in which, the venerable body of the Martyr himself being carried round through the city, the tempest of a vast mortality ceased."
[22] from the Veran field into Gaul But on the thirteenth day of August, after the eulogy of St. Hippolytus, and also the burial of himself, of St. Concordia, and of the other nineteen Martyrs in the Veran field, he adds these things concerning the body of our Saint: "Whence afterward it was raised, and given to Charlemagne by Pope Leo III as a precious gift, in"
"and brought into Gaul, together with the venerable pledges of St. Alexander Pope and martyr, and of blessed Cucuphas, likewise a witness of Christ, and was laid up with due honor by that same most pious emperor himself in the monastery of Valle-leporis (the Hare's Valley). But after his death, Fulrad his nephew, abbot of the famous monastery of St. Denis in France, translated it thence to the basilica of that same monastery of St. Denis; where he laid it in its own coffer and chapel, to be venerated by posterity with perennial observance, as it is even now honored. From the receiving of which, made illustrious by great testimonies of the divine magnificence, the anniversary day of the combat of that same blessed Hippolytus became famous in that church. On which day, when at one time Robert, the Most Christian king of the Franks, who was borne with great inclination of pious affection toward this Martyr, had come to the monastery of St. Denis, that he might celebrate his feast with the brethren in solemn manner, secretly turning aside from the army with which he had encircled the fortress of Melun; when he had devoutly been present at the solemnities of the Mass, at the very completion of the divine mystery, when the deacon was chanting after the custom 'Ite Missa est,' there came in haste to the king a messenger, signifying that the walls of the citadel had fallen utterly; and thus, by the help of the Martyr whom he specially reverenced, the pious king being made a victor, he returned to his own; and ascribing so great a victory to the protection of his * helper, he celebrated with great praises his excellent merits before God." Concerning the things which are mixed into that narrative less solidly, we shall presently take Saussay to task.
[23] The praised martyrologist, in the Supplement at this day, was translated, Saussay writes: says: "There is preserved at Cologne the body of St. Hippolytus, laid up at St. Ursula's. But certainly not of that Hippolytus who, baptized at Rome by St. Lawrence, was torn apart on this day by untamed horses at Valerian's command. For the most sacred body of this man, brought from Rome, rests, placed seven hundred and fifty years ago, in its own chapel in the great church of St. Denis in France. Whose genuineness, when Pope Alexander III, being in Gaul and visiting this basilica, called into doubt, not acquiescing in the asserted translation of that same body from Rome into France, he was compelled by a divine prodigy to acknowledge the truth on the spot, and to appease with humble supplication the Martyr who was angered with him." The event Saussay subjoins in the same place, but without any witness or voucher, as also the foregoing, for which he cites no author.
[24] For that reason we here transcribe the following from a manuscript which we possess. the history of which To that copy, then, these words are prefixed: "Commemoration of St. Hippolytus, from the Martyrology. On the IV of the Ides of May, on that very day, the commemoration of blessed Hippolytus the martyr, when, his most pious body being carried in procession, the tempest of a vast mortality ceased. Concerning the same, Aito." In the margin of the said transcript our Gamans, so abundantly deserving of our Work and so often praised in it, noted these words: "From a very large parchment manuscript Martyrology of Erfurt, given to me by the Elector of Mainz. I, John Gamans, collated it." And concerning the name Aito he adds: "In the earlier months and days it is read: 'Concerning the same, actor'" (should it be written auctor?) "'from his deeds.'" That last clause, if it is to be referred to Aito: Hatto, Haito or Hetto, bishop of Basel, is recorded to have undertaken by the order of Charlemagne an embassy to the emperor Nicephorus in the year 811. But concerning these things, and others pertaining to him, consult the bibliographers. Far younger than he, however, is whoever gathered the history subjoined to the said commemoration of St. Hippolytus, and that unskillfully. For he thrusts upon us not a few things insufficiently coherent: he narrates matters which befell under Robert, king of the Franks, son of Hugh Capet, and also under Pope Alexander III; nay rather, that he did not write before the year 1399 we shall observe below: concerning which see the things which will presently be said. These things being premised, receive now that history:
[25] "We read that Charlemagne, the Most Christian king of the Franks, we give and emperor and patrician of the Romans, translated the precious and venerable body of the glorious martyr Hippolytus from Rome into those parts of Germany which he specially loved, and which belonged to him by hereditary right on his wife's side, and honorably placed it in the church of a certain village not far distant from the delightful priory of the valley of Lebraha — the priory, namely, which that same prince, having summoned monks from the church of blessed Dionysius the Areopagite, had there built, and to which among other things he had conferred the said village, and which to this day, out of reverence for the martyr, is called by the name of St. Hippolytus.
[26] from the Erfurt martyrology, "After that emperor's death, his nephew.. Fulrad, abbot of the monastery of the blessed Areopagite Dionysius, is read to have translated with the highest reverence the most sacred body of the aforesaid Martyr to the said monastery, and to have prepared for it a most fitting place in the middle of the nave of the church. And because the Convent of that same monastery had been accustomed yearly on the Ides of August to celebrate the solemnity of the oft-named martyr Hippolytus at his oratory, the most illustrious Robert, king of the Franks, also, that from his presence the Saint's solemnity itself might be held more famous, was careful, every other occasion being set aside, to be present in person at that same festivity. He indeed, during the very solemnities of the Mass, standing in the choir with the precentor and the rest who kept the choir, clothed in a precious silken cope and holding the royal sceptre in his hands, illumined the whole choir, nay the whole church, and singing psalms with those who sang, cheerfully stirred up the rest to sing. Which assuredly so great a prince would by no means do, unless he were certain that the body of that same glorious Martyr rested there in presence. But because perhaps some one might say that king Robert himself, though faithful and Catholic, was a man and could be deceived, let us come now to the divine miracles, as to more certain indications of this truth.
[27] as also the miracles, "When Pope Alexander the Third, going forth from the City, had come into France and had approached the venerable monastery of the blessed * Areopagite Dionysius, being solemnly received by the abbot and convent, as was fitting, he is brought into the church, and a place is prepared for him to pray before the oratory of the precious Martyr. But when, his prayer being finished and his blessing given to the people, he had inquired of the bystanders whose Saint's body rested in the oratory before him, and it had been answered him, the body of St. Hippolytus, he replied: 'I do not believe it, I do not believe it. I supposed that he himself was still kept in the City.' Then the most glorious martyr Hippolytus, willing to remove the doubt of the Pope himself before the bystanders, and to declare evidently to all the presence of his body, straightway stirred up so great a crash and so great a tumult within the shrine that it was thought the roar of thunder. All were astounded and terrified, and the lord Pope himself was compelled by excessive fear to cry out: 'I believe, Lord; I believe, Lord; be now at rest.' Which being uttered, all that tumult straightway grew quiet. But the lord Pope himself, as though wishing to make satisfaction to the holy Martyr for the offence he had committed against him by doubting, in his own person consecrated the marble altar which is set in that Martyr's oratory, before he departed from the monastery.
[28] "I know this seems of little weight to the unbelieving for the proof of the truth. which are narrated to have followed upon this Let us recount another miracle by a truthful report. The sins of men requiring it, by the hidden but just judgment of the Godhead, a grave and horrible mortality had then seized the borders of Gaul. For it raged exceedingly, everywhere and publicly, and the plague, which seemed to rage against so many, was not undeservedly feared by all. For no medicine, no skill of physicians availed anything. Whence, being destitute of human comfort, they turn to the aid of the Godhead, and flee to the churches to seek the intercessions of the Saints. And at that same time a very great multitude of the sick gathered to the venerable monastery of blessed Dionysius; who, surrounding the oratory of the holy martyr Hippolytus, with tears and groaning implored the mercy of God through the intercession of his prayers and merits.
[29] "Then it was decreed by sound counsel of the convent that in the crisis of so great a necessity, for the obtaining of God's mercy, they should make a procession with bare feet, are narrated. and should carry with them the venerable body of blessed Hippolytus the martyr. And this was done on the fourth of the Ides of May, on that day, namely, on which the feast of the holy Martyrs Nereus, Achilleus and Pancratius is celebrated. And without delay, by the prayers and merits of the most holy Martyr, and by the devout humility of the people, the divine loving-kindness was moved to compassion, and the aforesaid mortality received its end. The sick also, who a little before had come near the oratory of St. Hippolytus in peril of death, returned to their own homes with health and joy. And that so great a miracle might never afterward slip from memory, the venerable Convent by unanimous counsel decreed that the feast of blessed Hippolytus should be celebrated every year together with the aforesaid three holy martyrs." Thus there. But what we would have observed concerning the narration of that history will become plain from what follows.
[30] Father Godfrey Henschen, in volume III of February, at the seventeenth day of that same month, Various things concerning the place of the translation, illustrated with a historical commentary the deeds of St. Fulrad, abbot of St. Denis in France and archchaplain of the royal palace: whose third paragraph is concerning the monasteries of Lebraha, of St. Hippolytus, and the others built by St. Fulrad, and also concerning the bodies of Sts. Vitus, Alexander, Hippolytus and Cucuphas translated by him; which will be of use to us. The situation of the monasteries of Lebraha and of St. Hippolytus thou wilt find in that same place: concerning which it has seemed good to set down these things from Le Cointe, volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, at the year 749, number LXVII: "Of the monasteries founded by Fulrad the most noble were, in the diocese of Strasbourg, Leberacum (Leberaw) and Fulradovilare; upon which were afterward imposed the names of the holy ones Alexander and Hippolytus. Leberacum, or the monastery of St. Alexander, lies beside the river Lebera in Valle-leporis, and as from the river Lebera it is called Leberacum, so from the relics of St. Alexander it is called the monastery of St. Alexander. The river Lebera rises from Mount Vosges, flows through Valle-leporis, washes Markirch and Leberacum, and then discharges itself into the left bank of the Ill below Schlettstadt. Fulradovilare, which had taken its name from Fulrad, began to be called the monastery of St. Hippolytus after the relics of St. Hippolytus were brought thither. It is situated between Schlettstadt, from which it is not far distant, and the town of Rappoltsweier; and by a much corrupted nomenclature it is commonly named Saint Bilt." In the Testament of St. Fulrad, which is extant in Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century 3, part 2, page 341, there occurs "the cell which is called Audaldo Villare: where St. Ipolytus rests"; certainly before the year 784, in which that same Fulrad departed from life; as thou wilt find marked in us in the praised Commentary, and in Mabillon page 339. But more about the time a little later.
[31] Besides the things which we have noted concerning the place, certain things are to be observed, 2., concerning the person the person of the one who translated, by whom St. Hippolytus was carried thither. Henschen, praised above, says: "The bodies of the holy martyrs Alexander and Hippolytus, whoever they may have been, were not given to Charlemagne by Pope Leo III; nor was the body of St. Hippolytus deposited by him in Valle-leporis; nor after his death was it carried by Fulrad, abbot of St. Denis, to his own monastery:"
"nor was this man Charlemagne's nephew. But the holy bodies of these martyrs were brought from Rome into Gaul by St. Fulrad while king Pippin was still living, as was shown above from the Acts of the translation of St. Vitus.. But if after the death of the emperor Charles this body of St. Hippolytus was translated to the monastery of St. Denis, it was not St. Fulrad, who died nearly thirty years before Charlemagne, who did it; but perhaps Hilduin, who, as we said, carried the body of St. Cucuphas from Lebraha to his own monastery; and Doublet, page 309, writes that both bodies were at the same time deposited by St. Fulrad at St. Denis, but after the death of Charlemagne, and elsewhere the year 848 is assigned": the cause of which error will presently appear.
[32] the time of the event, Concerning the translation of St. Cucuphas the martyr there was treatment in the Commentary prefixed to his Acts at the twenty-fifth day of July, volume VI of that same month, page 154; and concerning the cause of the error which Henschen just now indicated, there may be consulted §4 of his historical Commentary designated above, where he shows that the deeds of Fulrad, abbot of St. Quentin, were feigned of this St. Fulrad. For (I use the words of Mabillon, whom I cited before, page 334) "there flourished in Gaul two Fulrads, one after the other, both abbots. The first, of the monastery of St. Denis near Paris; the other, of the monastery of St. Quentin at Augusta Veromanduorum. The former in the principate of Pippin and of his son Charlemagne; the latter in that of Louis Augustus surnamed the Pious." Observe, 3., these things concerning the time at which St. Fulrad brought these sacred remains from Rome. Michel Félibien (concerning whom below, number 37), book 2, page 53, fixes the beginning of his Roman journey at about the year 763; but his return from Italy had happened, according to what he there notes, in the year 764. James Longueval, S. J., in the History of the Gallican Church, volume 4, book 12, page 445, treats of the bodies of Sts. Alexander and Hippolytus brought from Rome by Fulrad at the year 766; but Le Cointe, in the volume designated above, at the year 764, number XIV. Henschen long ago observed, in the cited Commentary, page 37, that those bodies were translated into Gaul before the year 768.
[33] observations, Which things being so, it follows that the translation of which we are discoursing, ascribed by Saussay to Charlemagne, as also in the Erfurt document, cannot be reconciled with the foregoing observations. Besides this, the priory of the valley of Lebraha was not built by that same Charlemagne, but by St. Fulrad, as is gathered from what has been said, with Mabillon also in support, who may be consulted at page 338. That assertion of time set down by Saussay, of which above — "the most sacred body, brought from Rome,.. rests, placed seven hundred and fifty years ago in the great church of St. Denis in France" — is vague. Mabillon abstained from determining the time of the translation, saying at page 339: "The body of St. Hippolytus was translated into the monastery of St. Denis many years ago." But although it is not ready to us to say in what year this befell, yet that it was not done before the year of Christ 778 is argued by this, that to that year is assigned the testament of St. Fulrad in Mabillon, page 342, in which we gather from these words that that body still rested in the cell of St. Hippolytus, and therefore had not yet then been translated to the monks of St. Denis: "The cell which is called Audaldo-villare, where St. Ipolytus rests." Now let us consider some things which we recorded above from Saussay and from the Erfurt Martyrology, and what things followed upon that translation, whenever at last it befell.
[34] The singular devotion of Robert, king of the Franks, toward St. Hippolytus, of which mention was made in the same place, is confirmed from elsewhere. and also concerning the things, For among the writers of the History of the Franks published by Duchesne, volume 4, page 146, from a manuscript book on the relics of the church of St. Denis bishop and martyr, these things are reported: "The venerable Convent of the church of the blessed Areopagite Dionysius was accustomed yearly on the Ides of August to keep the solemnity of the precious martyr Hippolytus and of his companions at his oratory in the middle of the nave of the church. To this feast all the monks are wont to gather, both the bailiffs and also the priors dwelling far off. But the most illustrious Robert, king of the Franks, the Most Christian of his time, had been accustomed every year, every business being set aside, to be present at this solemnity, that from the presence of so great a man the Saint's solemnity itself might be held the more solemn. He, while the divine mysteries of the Masses were being celebrated, standing in the choir with the precentor and the rest who kept the choir, clothed in a precious silken cope which he had himself procured for this very purpose, holding the golden royal sceptre in his hands, illumined the whole choir, nay the whole church, singing psalms with those who sang, and rejoicing with those who rejoiced, chanting solemnly with the others, and cheerfully exhorting the others to chant. For that same king was excellently lettered, subtly understanding, ardently loving God and his Saints. Who with the sweet modulation of his voice and with the cry of his heart sounded continually in the ears of the eternal Judge. And so he continued, until the most sacred solemnities of the divine mystery were finished."
[35] This Robert, king of the Franks, was the son of Hugh Capet; which are reported to have happened afterward and that his death is to be drawn back from the year of Christ 1033 to 1031 thou wilt find in Pagi, in the Critique of Baronius, at the year 1033, number VIII, and at the year 1034, number VIII: but his deeds in the aforesaid Duchesne, page 85 and following. What Saussay above narrated concerning the wonderful event at the siege of Melun, we wonder is not even touched upon, whether in the manuscript book on the relics of the church of St. Denis just cited, or in the account which we set forth from the Erfurt Martyrology, or finally in the fragment of the Chronicle of Fleury in Duchesne, cited above, page 143; where at the year 999 these things stand: "In that same year Walter the soldier and his wife delivered the castle of Melun to Count Odo. But king Robert gathered an army exceedingly great, and Burchard the count, and having summoned the Normans with their duke Richard, besieged the castle of Melun. The castle therefore being taken," etc.
[36] But now that prodigious history which is above related to have befallen at the body of the Martyr when Pope Alexander III had set out for Gaul, in the Erfurt Martyrology also gives us pause. That Pontiff sought Gaul and Paris under Louis VII, king of that same monarchy; concerning which matter see Baronius at the year 1163, Pagi at the years 1162 and 1163, and the historico-chronological Breviary of the Roman Pontiffs published by Francis Pagi, volume 3, pages 64, 68 and 74. But for the credit of the aforesaid history we desire ancient testimonies; and since, on account of the marvelous event, it could not but have been widely spread abroad at Paris or at least among the monks of St. Denis, let the authority of some one be brought forward by which it may be corroborated. Certainly in the Chronicle of William of Nangis, a monk of that same place, which was published in the Spicilegium of d'Achery, volume II from page 405, and in which at the year 1163 there is treatment of Pope Alexander III when he was in Gaul, there was an opportune place for touching upon so prodigious a matter with even a word, and yet in that same place there is the deepest silence concerning it; and from elsewhere we have thus far learned nothing about it.
[37] are reported. The things which were set forth above concerning the cure of the contagious pestilence, attributed to the patronage of St. Hippolytus, and also concerning the sacred honors which for his sake are celebrated every year in the church of St. Denis on the twelfth day of May, are treated by Michel Félibien, a monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in the History of the abbey of St. Denis in France, printed at Paris in the year 1706, book 6, page 316; and he knits that mortality to the year 1399, and cites the monk of St. Denis in the Chronicle of Charles VI; concerning which Chronicle the praised historian had treated in book 5, page 284. Whence we argue that the author who wrote the Erfurt document, produced above, did not set his mind to writing before the said year 1399. The surname Areopagite, which he there adds to St. Denis, we do not discuss, that controversy, so much agitated among the learned, looking elsewhere: concerning which meanwhile there may be consulted Francis Pagi in the historico-critical Dissertation on St. Denis bishop of Paris, which is had before volume 4 of the Breviary just cited. Concerning the first translation of the oft-named Martyr to the city of Soissons, and the mortality then there taken away, etc., let Saussay look to it, who above asserted these things. Another matter remains to be examined, namely of which St. Hippolytus the body ought to be held to be, concerning which we have thus far treated here.
Annotations* his own
* macarii, that is, blessed
§ IV. Which St. Hippolytus was translated into Gaul; the sacred relics honored under the name of that Martyr and of St. Concordia; the Acts.
That our Hippolytus of today That the instrument of the Erfurt Martyrology which we have just given, and also Saussay, understand by their St. Hippolytus our Saint of the same name of today, is clear from their words. In the testament of St. Fulrad marked above at number 30 there is only "St. Ipolytus," without any other characteristic mark; from which also the other ancient monuments which here follow abstain. In the diploma of Charlemagne, in Doublet, in the History of the abbey of St. Denis in France, page 707, these words are said: "Where the most blessed one and martyr Hippolytus rests buried in body." And a few words later there recurs in the same place the bare name of St. Hypolitus. The Acts of the translation of St. Vitus the martyr, part of which thou hast in volume III of February, §3, designated before, say thus: "But the aforesaid abbot (the discourse is of Fulrad) translated the bodies of the blessed martyrs Alexander and Hippolytus." Thus there. Whence therefore did that mark, here in controversy, afterward emerge? Indeed Henschen, in the place cited, long ago and rightly framed the following argument: "But what Saussay, and before him Doublet, write, that it is the body of St. Alexander Pope and martyr, is not everywhere proved, both because the ancients do not call him Pope, pontiff, bishop or priest; and from the parts of the body of St. Alexander Pope and martyr which are affirmed to be preserved elsewhere," as may be read in the same place; as also at the third day of May, page 370. "The same reasoning," he says, "holds of St. Hippolytus the martyr baptized by St. Lawrence, and buried in the Veran field"; whose remains also are ascribed to various places, as I shall presently say. Le Cointe, in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, volume 5, at the year of Christ 764, number XIV, after he had indicated that several Martyrs of the same name are had in the Roman Martyrology, thus rightly subjoins: "We are not ignorant that there are authors who write that the bodies of the holy Martyrs Alexander the Pope, and Hippolytus baptized by St. Lawrence, were brought into Gaul by Fulrad; but there are lacking proofs which might build up credence."
[39] Meanwhile those two miracles which are inserted into the narrative of the Erfurt martyrology to prove the identity of today's Martyr with the one at St. Denis was translated into Gaul, is not proved. are of no strength, so long as they are not proved to have any value of credit, according to
what has been set forth. But so far as they are said to have been wrought in favor of that identity, they are plainly apocryphal. And indeed who is so much a stranger in our Work as not to know that it is a common thing for possessors of sacred bodies to keep and exhibit their treasures under the names of Saints more celebrated than the rest? Wonderful indeed, as in other matters, so in this, is the force of an added idea. But whosesoever body of a St. Hippolytus the martyr it was that St. Fulrad translated to the monks of St. Denis, it could extinguish the raging pestilence of mortality, it could confer other graces upon wretched men, as the body of some holy martyr Hippolytus, even if not of today's; which that it truly is, we do not thus far see proved. But for these and the following matters I send the reader to our Acts, in which so often has been ventilated the controversy concerning the bodies of Saints of the same name, which some against others declare to be theirs. Behold now for thee the sacred relics which are honored under the name of our St. Hippolytus in various places.
[40] Among the Passed Over at the ninth day of May we marked the festivity of St. Hippolytus from a Vatican manuscript of St. Peter's, [There are brought forward various sacred relics which are preserved under the name of St. Hippolytus and of St. Concordia] and we observed that there is added in a manuscript of the Queen of Sweden's collection, to Usuard, and in another Parisian manuscript of St. Victor's, "when his most sacred body was translated into the monastery of St. Saviour." In Surius, after the Acts of St. Lawrence, to which the deeds of our Martyr are woven on, we read these words appended: "The body of St. Hippolytus the martyr, after various translations, rests at Cologne in the church of St. Ursula." Gelenius, in the Greatness of Cologne, book 4, which is on the sacred and pious calendars, writes thus on this day: "At Cologne, in the church of the holy Virgins, of St. Hippolytus the martyr, once the keeper of the prison-register of Decius Caesar, whom the archdeacon Lawrence washed with the baptism of Christ." In book 3, syntagma 10, §2, he had premised these words: "The third (reliquary) contains the bones of St. Hippolytus the martyr, brought from Gerresheim." Franciotti, in the History of Miraculous Images, etc., page 521, reckons among the sacred relics of the cathedral church of St. Martin at Lucca the head of St. Hippolytus the martyr; from what he had premised at page 497, of today's Soldier: for after he had there treated of him, and of the bishop of the same name, he adds that the sacred heads of these two holy martyrs were at different times brought to the city of Lucca: of which one is found in the aforesaid church, and where there is still to be seen, as he asserts, a certain particle of clotted blood; but the other at the church of St. Pontian. But an assertion so vague and undetermined, and that of an author no more ancient than he is, can by no means create certain credence. Panciroli, in the Catalogue of relics which he subjoins to the Hidden Treasures of the city of Rome, notes "Hippolytus the martyr with his nurse Concordia, and eighteen of his household. The bodies at the Four Crowned Saints'. Of his head at Holy Cross in Jerusalem, at St. Lawrence in Panisperna, and outside the walls. Relics in other churches." Piazza, in the Sacred Hemerology of Christian and pagan Rome, at the thirteenth day of August, ascribes to the church commonly called St. Mary in Cosmedin a part of the arm; to St. Mary of Victory the head of St. Concordia; to St. Lawrence in Lucina a part of the arm.
[41] are preserved. That the bodies of Sts. Hippolytus and Concordia rest at Brescia in the convent of nuns of St. Julia, together with other bodies of Saints translated thither in the year 1600, is stated by an inscription published by Ughelli, volume 4 of Sacred Italy, column 734; from which we cull these words: "To God, Best and Greatest. Hither from the old church of the holy virgins and martyrs Julia, Pistis, Helpis and Agape, and Sophia their mother .. and of Hippolytus and Concordia his nurse, martyrs .. the bodies .. while Clement VIII presided in the pastoral care, and in the most serene dominion of Venice Marino Grimani was doge .. were translated in the year of jubilee 1600, on the sixteenth of the Calends of January." Which things being so, it is now asked, 1., of which of the said claimants of the sacred body the possession is the stronger. 2. Whether that of any of them is historically certain enough. 3. What of the relics? To these three questions we answer: Since, besides the things which we have just said, the ancient monuments supply us with nothing further to be said by which we might confirm or weaken the present argument, we leave the possessors of those sacred deposits in their good faith.
[42] The Acts are extant in various copies; Let us now examine what occurs concerning the Acts of our Martyr. They are extant in Surius, appended to those of Lawrence at the tenth day of this month. His martyrdom we have also from a Fulda manuscript, which is noted as collated with a manuscript of St. Martin's at Trier and with one of Marchiennes. There is likewise with us a transcript from the Utrecht manuscript of St. Saviour's; as also a copy which we received from Father Antonio Beatillo, S. J., at Naples in the year 1640. A summary of the Acts thou hast in the Martyrology of Ado at the thirteenth day of August, which Rosweyde published. But that it may become clear whether they are drawn from the same or from a different source, receive these specimens. In Surius these things are narrated: "Valerian therefore delivered St. Lawrence to a certain Hippolytus, a vicar, to be kept in custody: and he shut him up with many others.. Hippolytus meanwhile patiently endured their discourses" — namely those of St. Lawrence and of Lucillus, whose baptism and the illumination of whose eyes are there narrated. "Hearing of this many blind men came weeping to Bl. Lawrence, and he, in Hippolytus's custody, laid his hand upon their eyes, and they were enlightened. Seeing this, Hippolytus said to Bl. Lawrence: Show me the treasures of the Church. Blessed Lawrence answered: O Hippolytus, if thou believest in God the Father almighty, and in his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, I both show thee the treasures and promise thee eternal life." There follows then, after the instruction given to Hippolytus, his baptism, and that of nineteen of his household. "But behold, Valerian commands Hippolytus to bring Lawrence to the palace. And Hippolytus said to Bl. Lawrence: Valerian, at Decius's bidding, has ordered that I bring thee to him. Bl. Lawrence says: Let us go: for glory is prepared both for me and for thee." After the martyrdom of that same Saint, which is there narrated, and the faith, baptism and capital sentence of St. Romanus the soldier, and also the burial of the body of St. Lawrence, these things are read in the same place:
[43] "But Hippolytus, returning, after the third day came into his own house, but they indicate the same and imparting peace to all, communicated also his men-servants and maid-servants from the Sacrifice of the altar of Bl. Lawrence the martyr. And the table being set, before he took food, soldiers came and seized him, and led him to Decius Caesar. Seeing him, Decius Caesar, smiling, says: Hast thou too become a magician, thou who art said to have carried off the body of Lawrence? Hippolytus answered: Indeed I did it, not as a magician, but as a Christian. Decius Caesar, seized with fury, ordered his mouth to be beaten with stones; and having stripped off the garment which he wore as a Christian, said: Sacrifice to the gods," etc. "Hippolytus said: Thou hast not stripped me, but rather hast begun to clothe me." Let it suffice to have excerpted these things thence, to serve for what we shall now say concerning the copies named above.
[44] The Fulda manuscript begins thus: "Ypolitus therefore, having returned, after the third day came into his own house, origin and gave peace to all, even to his men-servants and maid-servants, and communicated them from the Sacrifice of the altar of blessed Lawrence the martyr; and the table being set, before he took food, soldiers came and seized him, and led him to Decius Caesar. Seeing whom, Decius Caesar, smiling, says to him: Hast thou too become a magician, since thou art said to have carried off the body of St. Lawrence?" etc. Do not enough similar things here concur for these Acts, as also those of Surius, to be judged as to be referred to the same origin? But what of the Utrecht ones? Let the same judgment be of them. They begin thus: "Hippolytus, when he had received Lawrence from Valerian, shut him up with many. And there was there a heathen man by name Lucillus, who by weeping had lost the light of his eyes; to whom Bl. Lawrence said," etc. "But Hippolytus patiently listened to their words," etc. "Hippolytus therefore, having returned, after the third day came into his own house, and gave peace to all." The rest I do not pursue. But now such is the opening of the Passion sent hither by Father Beatillo: "St. Hippolytus and Justinus the priest, when they had buried the body of Bl. Lawrence, fasted.. And blessed Justinus offered the Sacrifice of praise, and all partook. And Hippolytus, having returned, after the third day came into his own house, and gave peace to all, even to his servants," etc. In our parchment codex P. Ms. 21, and in the Passion in Mombritius, I find also marks which indicate an origin common with the others. We have therefore various copies proceeding from one source: whose narrative it will suffice to know from the summary of Ado designated above, which we shall presently exhibit; since the copies of the Acts of so illustrious a Martyr are not of so great value as we would wish them to be. But that for Decius and Valerian, under whom the matter is said to have been done, Valerian the emperor must be substituted, we advised before at number 18.
[45] Away, then, with that most inept episode of the Greek Menaea and of the Anthology, which at the tenth day of August in the eulogy of St. Lawrence M. has it thus: "It is reported that on the seventh day after Hippolytus had suffered, Decius and Valerian, while riding on horseback they were departing to the theatre, expired; and that Decius cried out in the hour of his death: O Hippolytus, how dost thou lead me away thus a captive and bound? And Valerian: Dost thou thus drag me with burning chains? Which thing being published to all the world, all were vehemently confirmed in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom be glory forever." Similar things concerning Decius and Valerian are narrated in Surius. Mombritius in the Passion of St. Hippolytus has also trifles of this kind, which we have read elsewhere too. Receive now
A SUMMARY OF THE MARTYRDOM
From the Martyrology of Ado at the thirteenth day of August.
Hippolytus, Martyr, at Rome (St.)
Concordia, Martyr, at Rome (St.)
XIX other Martyrs, at Rome — BHL Number: 3968
The Saint, baptized by Lawrence, is set before the tyrant; This blessed Hippolytus, a vicar a, St. Lawrence b baptized when he was in his custody. And he, coming back to his own house on the third day after the holy obsequies of the Martyr, gave peace to all his men-servants and maid-servants, and communicated them from the Sacrifice of the altar of blessed Lawrence the martyr. And the table being set, before he took food, soldiers came, and seized him, and led him to Decius c. Whom when he saw, smiling he said to him: Hast thou too become a magician, since thou art said to have carried off the body of Lawrence? St. Hippolytus answered: This I did, not as a magician, but as a Christian. Decius, filled with fury, ordered that his mouth should be beaten with stones. And he stripped him of the garment in which he was clad in Christian habit, and said to him: Sacrifice, and thou shalt live.
But if otherwise, thou shalt perish by torments like Lawrence. St. Hippolytus said: May I merit to be made an example of blessed Lawrence the martyr, whom thou, wretch, hast dared to name with polluted mouth.
[2] and after torments he is adjudged to death, as also his nineteen household; Being stretched out, therefore, he was long beaten with cudgels and with thistles, until those who beat him failed. Then he was raised from the ground: and Decius ordered him to be clothed in the military garb which he had used as a heathen, and said to him: Bethink thee of thy soldiering, and be our friend, and in our sight follow thy former soldiering, which thou hast always had. And when the blessed Martyr had said: This is my soldiering, to serve as a firm Christian, whereby I desire to come with fruit to a speedy palm; Decius, full of wrath, said to Valerian: Take all his goods, and slay him with a cruel examination. Valerian therefore, having searched out all his property, found in Hippolytus's house all his household Christian, and caused them to be presented to his sight. And he ordered blessed Hippolytus to be led with his household outside the walls of the Tiburtine gate. But blessed Hippolytus comforted them all, saying: Brethren, fear not, for I and you have one God. And there were beheaded of both sexes to the number of nineteen. But blessed Hippolytus, bound by the feet to the necks of untamed horses, and so dragged through the thistle-field and the briars, gave up his spirit d. By night came blessed Justinus e the priest, and gathered the bodies, and buried them in that same field beside the Nympha, at the side of the Veran field f, on the Ides of August.
[3] and St. Concordia, his nurse, Then, after Ado had subjoined on the same day the birthday of holy Concordia, the nurse of that same blessed Hippolytus, he thus recounts her combat: When Valerian had said to the household of blessed Hippolytus presented to him: Consider your ages, lest ye perish together with Hippolytus your master; blessed Concordia answered: We desire rather to die chastely with our master, than to live unchastely. To this Valerian said: The race of slaves is not amended save by punishments. And he ordered that blessed Concordia should be beaten with leaded scourges. And while she was being beaten, she gave up her spirit; and her body was cast into the sewer. And when holy Justinus long sought it, and did not find it, he was made so sorrowful that his eyes did not cease to weep. But on the thirteenth day after the passion of St. Hippolytus, a certain soldier by name Porphyrius came to Irenaeus g the sewer-cleaner h, who was secretly a Christian, and says to him: If thou canst keep a secret, I will disclose to thy craft much for gain. Some days ago Valerian the prefect ordered in his sight a certain foster-nurse i of Hippolytus to be done away with leaded scourges, and her body to be cast into the sewer. I hope that she has pearls or gold hidden in her garments. Hearing this, Irenaeus secretly made it known to blessed Justinus the priest. Who, bending his knees, gave thanks to God. But Porphyrius, coming by night with Irenaeus, found the holy body: but in the garments they found nothing. And blessed Irenaeus called to himself a certain Christian by name Abundius, and they took her body, and brought it to blessed Justinus. Who, giving thanks to God, received it; and buried it k beside the bodies of the martyrs Hippolytus and the others, on the eighth of the Calends of September.
ANNOTATIONS.
MIRACLES OF ST. HIPPOLYTUS
From Peter Calo, of the Order of Friars Preachers. Preliminary admonition.
Hippolytus, Martyr, at Rome (St.)
Concordia, Martyr, at Rome (St.)
XIX other Martyrs, at Rome — BHL Number: 3969
Observations concerning the writer, I have in hand a transcript headed with this title: "The miracles of St. Hippolytus, from Peter Calo, after the Life, part 2, folio 34." Peter Calo, or Calotius, of the Order of Preachers (not of the Minors, as Possevino and Vossius wrote), flourished toward the end of the thirteenth century. Bolland treats of him in the general Preface to the Acts of the Saints, chapter 1, §4, page XX, and James Échard; in whom, volume 1 of the Writers of the Order of Preachers, page 511, there are reckoned among his writings "Lives of the Saints collected from ancient monuments, and comprised in two volumes of enormous bulk." He adds that, besides these codices still preserved at Bologna at St. Dominic's, Alva (concerning whom Nicolas Antonio in the Spanish Library), sol. verit. Rad. 179 Col., testifies that he had seen two similar volumes at Rome in the Barberini library; so that it is strange that Bolland in the general Preface to the Acts of the Saints writes that only one volume, namely the second, was seen by him in that same Barberini library. But we with better right wonder that Échard could write such things of Bolland, who could see neither one volume nor two, either in the Barberini or in any other library at Rome, because he never saw Rome, although invited to it; as is clear from his Life, prefixed to our first volume of the month of March, chapter 13. Besides this, we have found in him, in the place just now assigned by us, not a tittle about the Barberini library. These things on occasion of the writer of the miracles which we are about to give.
[2] the matter of the writing and our transcript. Concerning the matter of the writing, and our copy, we premise these things briefly. At what time those miracles befell, Calotius betrays by no indication. In place of the phrase "as some write," we should have liked rather to see him express the names of those "some"; as likewise to have determined a little more distinctly the Mariale, as he calls it. The things therefore which he narrates we shall give on his own credit, of whatever sort they be. But because our transcript was faulty, it was necessary to help it, and, where occasion offered, to bring it back to an intelligible sense. It is noted as taken "from codex 929"; but it is not added of what library: which perhaps was designated on other leaves from which this present copy, out of which we commit these miracles to the press, was incautiously separated and laid aside apart. In favor of the Barberini there seems to make somewhat both what has just been said of it, and because I have before me a copy concerning another female Saint which is noted "from a parchment manuscript Legendary of Cardinal Barberini," and is transcribed in the hand of the same copyist who wrote out the present document of miracles. Whatever it be, whether it came to us taken from the Barberini library or from elsewhere, this is not of such moment as ought to delay the reader. Finally, because it does not shine forth from the author's wording whether the discourse is of our St. Hippolytus of today or of another of the same name, therefore we here bring the matter forward under the name of St. Hippolytus the martyr, such as he is marked in the narrative of that same matter; and where it was done will be indicated in the Annotations. And these indeed are the things of which we judged the reader ought to be forewarned. It remains that the miracles themselves be now subjoined.
[3] A young man for violating a feast day A certain young man by name Peter, performing for his stepfather the office of ox-herd on the day of Bl. Mary Magdalene, which he had heard was forbidden by priestly proclamation from public labor, objected to his stepfather, who commanded the tilling of the field, the reverence due to the holy solemnity; but the command of his chiding stepfather prevailed. Therefore, yoking the oxen to the plough, he carries [it] out with cursing both of the work itself and of the animals. And while he pursues what he has begun, the oxen do not hear him as he urges them with the goad and with a hiss. These in his anger he now pricks, now beats, now drags by the horns, now goes before them, now follows; now thrusts them with his shoulders, now with his hands. Wonderful thing! the oxen die beneath the yoke; or, as some write, stoning * the oxen with continual curses, he is heard to his own useless wish. For the oxen and the implements, the elements being stirred by a sudden thunderclap, are consumed by lightning, and he himself, who had by his imprecation demanded that this be done, is adjudged to a more frightful and more lasting punishment. For the same heavenly flame which had devoured the beasts and the wooden gear snatched him away by such an example; and when it had returned in a short while, it rendered him consumed, and began to overrun the shin-bone also; likewise it seized the upper parts of the leg: devouring the flesh too, the hardness of the sinews growing flabby with wasting discharges, it had laid bare the bones, and by daily accident had scattered them here and there up to the knee.
[4] Since therefore by his wretched condition he was a stench and a shame to his parents, is punished by divine power; he had himself carried to a certain church dedicated to the name of Bl. Mary Magdalene, that she to whom the profaned festival had been the occasion of his perversion might again become the cause of his remedy. And so the sacred fire, which had already reached the upper parts of his body, was extinguished by the merit of her who at the feet of Christ merited to extinguish with her tears the fire of concupiscences. Meanwhile, from the experience of one act of mercy already presuming greater things, since with his extremities he was still useless for work, he learned that there was a certain church of the Mother of God a distant three miles from Arles b, on the borders of the ebbing ocean, marked long since with famous miracles; which had also a memorial of Hippolytus the martyr. When he had obtained to be conveyed to this in a boat along the Rhone c, the Mother of God was present, and utterly extinguished the burning, and, his loins being loosed, which that fire had devoured, the bone of the shin, loosed from its socket, fell down in the boat; which he, weeping for joy of his health, arriving thither on the fifth day, offered to his deliveress, giving thanks. And he began there with frequent supplications to importune the Queen of the world, that what she bestowed upon others who were stronger she would not altogether deny to himself who was helpless.
[5] But a certain soldier, often seeing him creeping into the basilica for the sake of alms, but by the Mother of God and by St. Hippolytus appearing to him, persuaded him to turn aside into his own house: where, when he had stayed for some while, the maidservants, about to do I know not what, come down by night from the chamber into the outer part of the house, and overhear Peter groaning with frequent lamentations. Of which groanings this had been the cause. The blessed Virgin Mary with Bl. Hippolytus had stood by his bed in a vision, and she, as it seemed to him lying there, had commanded St. Hippolytus, saying: Restore him to his former vigor, setting the foot which thou holdest to his leg. He obeys. And now new
flesh becomes one with the old, and, the bones of both cohering in a firm frame, veins recognize veins, and sinews receive sinews, and at the joining of the new flesh and the old, like a slender red thread, it girds the hip. That hip was more comely than the whole body. The new foot was more prominent than the other by three fingers in measure.
[6] But the Martyr, humbly obeying her who commanded, in a wonderful manner began to join to him, as it were a graft to a tree, the leg, the shin, and the foot, once scattered in every direction, brought together by divine power in a moment after the manner of the coming resurrection which gathers up bodies. In which insertion he was pressed by such torments and burnings that, unable to endure without cries, he showed by frequent gaping of the mouth and movements of his limbs what he suffered. The maidservants therefore rush in, and bringing a light from the hearth of the neighboring bedchamber, while they look about here and there, they find that Peter has two feet and two legs. From which sight so great an astonishment straightway seized them that they thought themselves not to be the same women who had come, but changed into others. They handled him, and felt that the limbs which they had touched were true.
[7] he is healed, At length, with the greatest difficulty roused, when he had opened his eyes, he still thought the Virgin with the Martyr were standing by. When these had visibly departed, being asked by the brethren who had restored to him what he had lost, he told the tale, and brought many into admiration. For the whole country ran to see this miracle: and the offerings made to him exceeded weight, number and measure; of which Peter distributed full vessels to the poor. But nevertheless the new shank, being softer than the old, could not be made equal to it for the sustaining of the body. Whence, for the publishing of the miracle, he limped for a year. And then again the blessed Virgin, appearing to him, told Bl. Hippolytus to supply whatever was lacking to his cure, except the tenderness and appearance of the skin. Awaking therefore, and seeing himself utterly healed, he entered a recluse's cell, to live for himself, for God, and for his Mother.
[8] Leaving the world, he is freed from diabolical filthinesses. To him the devil most frequently appeared in the shape of a naked woman, and thrusting herself naked upon him, the more strongly he resisted, the more shamelessly she pressed upon him. When therefore he was greatly vexed by her, at length he, snatching a priestly stole, bound it about her neck and strangled her. Presently the devil, departing, left there a putrid corpse, and so great a stench remained there that no one who saw it doubted that it had been the body of some dead woman which the devil had assumed; which the bishop and other citizens burned. Now the name of the town of Alimia e is Peneda d, whence the said ox-herd drew his origin: and, as is said in the Mariale, having used sounder counsel, he went to Cluny, and there became a monk.
ANNOTATIONS.
* perhaps: ensnaring