ON ST. ARSACIUS, OR URSACIUS, CONFESSOR,
AT NICOMEDIA IN BITHYNIA,
In the year 358.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
His cult, the place and time of his death, his manner of life, his Acts.
Arsacius, confessor, at Nicomedia in Bithynia (St.)
BY J. P.
Two things present themselves to us as wonderful in this Confessor: the one indeed, that we find not the least memory of him in the sacred calendars of the Greeks, The Saint's memory in the Latin Martyrologies although he belongs altogether to the Eastern and indeed to the Greek church; the other, that among the most ancient and most celebrated Latin Martyrologists, to whom he in no way pertains, he is celebrated with an annual cult, and that so far propagated that he has a place among the heavenly citizens of the present day in the modern Roman Martyrology (for of the ancient one I shall speak presently) in these words: At Nicomedia, of St. Arsacius the confessor, who under the persecutor Licinius, having left the military service and leading a solitary life, shone with such great virtues that he is read to have expelled demons and to have slain a huge dragon by prayer: at last, foretelling the coming disaster of the city, he rendered up his spirit to God in prayer. This is wonderful, I say, both for the reasons which I mentioned, and because I know of no one except Sozomen, a Greek author, who first gave light to the Latin hagiologists concerning this Saint; to whom Nicephorus may then be added, Baronius citing both in his notes to the Roman Martyrology. But now let us hear what the ancient Martyrologies record concerning him. The old or Little Roman has this on the present day: At Nicaea of Bithynia, of Ursatius the confessor, under Licinius. Ado: At Nicaea of Bithynia, the birthday of St. Ursatius the confessor, under the persecutor Licinius. Who, having forsaken the military service, led a solitary life in a certain tower of the aforesaid city, and shone with such great virtues that he is read both to have expelled demons and to have slain a huge dragon by prayer. Written in the fifth book of the Tripartite Ecclesiastical History. To Ado add Usuard, to Usuard Notker. It is enough to have named Belinus, Greven, Felicius, Maurolycus, Galesinius, as also our manuscript Florarium.
[2] not everywhere, however, on the same day Ferrarius, in his Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, on the XXXI day of March records thus: At Nicaea in Bithynia, of St. Arsacius the solitary. From Canisius, as he adds in his notes, on this day, warning that it must be seen whether he is the same as the one treated of in the Roman Martyrology on the XVI day of August: although the latter is assigned not to Nicaea, but to Nicomedia. In the Usuard illustrated by us, among the Supplements from the Lubeck-Cologne edition, at the same day, the XXXI of March, this announcement is placed: At Nicaea of Bithynia, of St. Arsatius the confessor, from a soldier become a hermit, who cured a demoniac and slew a dragon. But from Greven this: At Nicaea of Bithynia, of Arsacius, soldier, hermit, and confessor. And from Greven, or, if you will, from the said edition also, was taken the announcement of the Martyrology which is circulated under the name of Canisius, which on the XXXI day of March relates thus in German: Likewise at Nicaea in Bithynia, of the holy soldier, hermit, and confessor Arsacius. But on the present day his name is again marked in the same place with a eulogy, in which certain things are noted which are of the same purport as that which we shall afterwards produce from Sozomen. That the writer of that Martyrology thought that two Arsacii were marked on different days seems sufficiently to be gathered from what has been said. But there is only one and the same, as is concluded from these characteristics: at Nicaea in Bithynia, a soldier, a hermit, a confessor — all of which agree exactly with our one and the same Saint of today. Whom beware of confounding with another of almost the same name, who stands among us in volume 111 of March, on the XXXI day, page 897: for this one is different from him, as I may say, by a whole heaven; since he is called Acacius, was a bishop, is noted at Melitene in Armenia Minor and under Decius, and his history is other than that of ours.
[3] To these notes certain others must be added concerning the place and the day on which we said before that St. Arsacius is announced by the hagiologists. With certain matters concerning the famous earthquake of the city of Nicomedia Light upon this will be furnished by that famous earthquake of Nicomedia, which he is related below, in the Compendium of the Acts, to have foreseen before it happened — which Compendium we shall produce from book 4, chapter 16, of Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History in the Valesian edition. From the same source we meanwhile cull the following to our purpose: It was resolved that a synod should be gathered at Nicomedia in Bithynia … But when the greater part of the bishops had already set out on the journey, news was brought of the calamity of Nicomedia, namely that the whole of it had been shaken by an earthquake. And when the report had everywhere gained strength that that city had been utterly overthrown, the bishops ceased to go further, etc. Ammianus Marcellinus, published by Gronovius in the year 1693, book 17, chapter 7, page 129, writing of that tragic earthquake, says: Among the monuments of manifold calamities the disaster of Nicomedia, mother of the cities of Bithynia, stood out … At the first rising of the light, on the ninth day before the Kalends of September, dense masses of blackening clouds, etc. That deadly ruin began, therefore, on the XXIV day of August according to Marcellinus. Idatius agrees in his Fasti, in the consulship of Datianus and Cerealis, as is said in the notes at the place just cited: "In that same year an earthquake occurred, so that the city of the Nicomedians was utterly overturned on the IX of the Kalends of September." And Aurelius Victor, in his Marcus, says: "And of Asia, Ephesus, and of Bithynia, Nicomedia were laid low by an earthquake, as also in our own age Nicomedia in the consulship of Cerealis." Moreover Socrates, in book 2, chapter 31, of his Ecclesiastical History, says that Constantius, who at first had ordered a council of bishops to be held at Nicomedia, upon hearing of the disaster of Nicomedia appointed Seleucia of Isauria as the seat of the council; and he adds: Τοῦτο δὲ γέγονε Δατιανοῦ καὶ Κερεαλίου περὶ τὴν ὀγδόην εἰκάδα τοῦ Αὐγούστου μηνός. That is, on the IX of the Kalends of September (not the V, as the translator wrongly renders), who did not notice that the form of speech is Attic. So there.
[4] Further, concerning that Greek manner of reckoning, note briefly and concerning the time of the same, that they divide their months into three decades or groups of ten, as may be seen more fully in Gretser's Institutions of the Greek Tongue, book 3, chapter 23, pages 625 and 626 of the Ingolstadt printing of the year 1593. But the third decade begins from the XXI day, φθινοῦντος, or παυομένου, or λήγοντος, or ἐπὶ εἰκάδι, as it were of the month waning or ceasing, or beyond the twentieth day; and the said XXI day is δεκάτη φθινοῦντος μηνὸς, that is, the tenth of the ceasing month (but to the Latins it is the XI of the Kalends); the XXII day is ἐννάτη, the ninth; the XIII day ὀγδόη, the eighth, which to the Latins is the IX of the Kalends, or the XXIII of the month: for, as Gretser observes, in the decade μηνὸς φθινοῦντος the Greeks use a retrograde order of numbers, as the Latins do in their Nones, Ides, and Kalends. Which things Gretser exhibits in a table in the same place. Let us say, therefore, that according to the foregoing that earthquake happened on the XXIII or XXIV day of the month of August, in the year of Christ 358; to which correspond the consuls Datianus and Cerealis, concerning whom the Consular Fasti of Peter Reland may be seen from page 384. But now let us return
to St. Arsacius, for the investigation of whose reckoning of time and place these things have been said; to which, after we have added some points from Sozomen's narrative concerning the Saint, we shall set forth our conclusions.
[5] [and from a compendium of the Saint's Acts, the foregoing observations being premised, it is drawn out in what place he died, on what day,] They say, as he relates, that Arsacius foresaw that calamity of the earthquake before it happened … He was dwelling in the citadel of Nicomedia within the walls of the city … There a divine vision presented to him bade him go forth from the city … Thereupon, hastening to the church, he charged the clergy to supplicate God earnestly … to drive away the wrath … But when he could not persuade them … he returned to his tower, and falling prostrate upon the earth prayed to God. Meanwhile, an earthquake arising, very many perished. Then the flame of a fire made the whole city, so to speak, like one funeral pyre. For this cause, since the houses were inaccessible, those who had escaped unharmed from the earthquake ran to the citadel. There Arsatius was found dead in the tower, which had stood unshaken, lying prone upon the ground in the same posture in which he had stretched himself out when about to begin his prayer. It follows from these things, 1. that he died at Nicomedia: where he is rightly announced by the modern Roman Martyrology. Why then is he placed at Nicaea by the other hagiologists whom we named above? It follows, 2. that his annual memory is not quite rightly assigned in the calendars to the XVI day of August, on which he was still living, since he certainly did not die before the XXIII or XXIV day of August, seeing that the famous earthquake only began then; nay rather, it is not certainly established whether he did not even then survive some days into the time of that fire of which we were speaking, which followed the earthquake and was drawn out for 50 days and as many nights, as Ammianus Marcellinus, cited above, testifies, who at page 130 relates that there might have survived a greater part of the sacred and private buildings and of the men, had not the burning of the flames, spreading abruptly, burned up for fifty days and nights whatever could be consumed. If, however, he then still survived, he does not seem to have survived beyond a very few of those fifty days, on account of the most rapid voracity of the flames and the running together of the people to the citadel, who, having escaped unharmed from the earthquake, would not long have delayed to look to their safety there, since they could not elsewhere.
[6] in what year, It follows, 3. that the Saint's name is Arsacius, and not Ursacius: which nevertheless we too, with several others, have so expressed in the title of this our Commentary. It follows, 4. that the year of his death ought to be 358 of the vulgar era, from the consuls noted above, and that this therefore should be marked rather than 310 with Surius; although we do not deny that he flourished at that time also: for he had been, as Sozomen relates, not undistinguished among the Confessors in the principate of Licinius. It follows, 5. that our Arsacius is very far different from another of the same name, who lived, as Baronius observes in his notes to the Roman Martyrology, in the times of Julian the Apostate, and was a Christian king of Armenia, toward whom, from hatred of Christ, that same impious emperor showed himself exceedingly ungenerous: concerning whom Sozomen, book 6, chapter 1, and Ammianus Marcellinus frequently make mention. For they are distinguished by place, time, and office.
[7] and lastly in what manner of life But what office or manner of life did our Confessor once discharge? Sozomen says: Ἀπὸ στρὰτιώτου δὲ θηροκόμου τῶν βασιλικῶν λεόντων, etc. Which in Valesius is thus rendered into Latin: Who, serving as one set over the feeding of the emperor's lions, etc. Nicephorus Callistus, in book 9, chapter 38, of his Ecclesiastical History, page 771 of the Paris edition, relates the matter thus: Ὃς ἀπὸ θηροκόμου στρατιώτης ὦν. Who had formerly been a soldier, and a tamer of lions and other wild beasts, and a keeper in the imperial retinue, as the Latin translator renders it. Which we render thus: Who from a feeder of wild beasts became a soldier. Where you see two different offices indicated, namely that of a soldier and that of a keeper of wild beasts. Valesius in his annotations on that passage of Sozomen, page 126, says: Nicephorus did not understand this passage. For he thought that Arsacius was first a feeder of the imperial lions, and afterwards a soldier … Nicephorus was ignorant, that is to say, that any service whatever which is rendered to the emperor is called military service.
[8] The same Valesius, upon those words of Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chapter 2, τοῖς κατὰ τὰ βασίλεια στρατευομένοις, he was engaged in the world. to those who served in the palace, among other things which he observes upon that author, writes in his annotations, page 18, these words: Christopherson wrongly translates it "the emperor's bodyguards." For all the Palatines are designated by this expression, not the protectors only and the domestics and the rest of the scholarians who were under arms, but also the ministeriani and the scriniarii. For this was called the Palatine military service. In the same way in which the officials or apparitors of the ordinary or civil magistrates were called soldiers: and their service is in the Theodosian Code called the cohortal militia. Cangius in either Glossary will furnish more that bears upon this to him who wishes. From these things it is concluded that by that phrase of Sozomen, ἀπὸ στρατιώτου δὲ θηροκόμου, a single charge is designated, a single office or prefecture of feeding the wild beasts or lions of the emperor; and accordingly we judge that the expressions of the Martyrologies mentioned above are also to be understood in this sense.
[9] It remains that we make a few observations upon the compendium of the Acts. The credit of the Acts. The word λέγουσι, they say, ought by no means to render its history suspect: for although the phrase it is said, it is reported, etc., not rarely elsewhere weakens the credit of the things afterwards narrated, yet if here you compare the beginning of the history with its end, you will find the following brought forward there by the author, which commends it: And these things indeed were so related by those who said that they had received them from men who had themselves seen Arsacius.
A COMPENDIUM OF THE ACTS
From Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, book 4, chapter 16, page 559 of the Valesian edition.
Arsacius, confessor, at Nicomedia in Bithynia (St.)
The Saint, after a secular calling, practicing the monastic life After the author had treated of the most mournful earthquake of the city of Nicomedia, of which mention has also been made by us above in the preliminary Commentary, on the occasion of the same earthquake he presently undertakes to set forth certain deeds and miracles of St. Arsacius to this effect: But they say that a certain Arsacius foresaw that calamity before it happened. He was a Persian by nation: who, serving as one set over the feeding of the emperor's lions a, had been not undistinguished among the confessors in the principate of Licinius b; and having laid aside the military service, he was dwelling in the citadel of Nicomedia within the walls of the city, exercising himself in the pursuits of monastic discipline. There a divine vision presented to him bade him go forth from the city, inasmuch as it was to suffer what it presently suffered.
[2] He foretells the earthquake to the Nicomedians: Thereupon, hastening to the church, he charged the clergy to supplicate God earnestly, and to offer prayers to appease Him, to drive away the wrath that threatened. But when he could not persuade them, but seemed ridiculous, as one foretelling an unlooked-for disaster, he returned to his tower: and falling prostrate upon the earth, he prayed to God. Meanwhile, an earthquake c arising, very many perished: but the rest who survived fled away into the fields and into the wilderness.
[3] which a terrible fire follows, For, as in a wealthy and very great city, fire had been kindled through all the houses in hearths and ovens, and in the furnaces of the baths, and of those craftsmen who ply their arts by the benefit of fire. And when the roofs and ceilings of the buildings had been cast down, the flame, seizing upon the material — mingled, as is likely, with dry timber, and whatever things have the nature of oil and are most apt for quickly catching fire — found abundant fuel: and creeping everywhere, and joining and uniting with itself, it made the whole city, so to speak, like one funeral pyre.
[4] and on that occasion he is found dead. For this cause, since the houses were inaccessible, those who had escaped unharmed from the earthquake ran to the citadel. There Arsacius was found dead in the tower, which had stood unshaken, lying prone upon the ground in the same posture in which he had stretched himself out when about to begin his prayer d. They say further that, before he died, he had supplicated God, and had preferred to die rather than to behold with his own eyes the ruin of that city in which he had first received the knowledge of Christ, and had learned the ecclesiastical philosophy.
[5] By his power over demons But since the order of the narrative has led us to the mention of this Man, it must be known that he was so dear to God that he put demons to flight, and cleansed those who were vexed by them. On a certain day, therefore, a demoniac began to run about through the forum with a drawn sword. And when all were fleeing, and the city was full of tumult, Arsacius, meeting him, cast him down by uttering the name of Christ: and straightway freed him from the demon, and restored him to a sound mind.
[6] and by other prodigies he excelled. Many other things also were wrought by him which surpass human power, among which is this. A dragon, or some other kind of serpent, used to kill travelers by its breath before it was seen by them. For it lurked in a cave beside the public road. Arsacius, having gone thither, prayed to God: and immediately the serpent came forth of its own accord from the cave, and dashing its head upon the ground, killed itself. And these things indeed were so related by those who said that they had received them from men who had themselves seen Arsacius.