ON ST. AGAPITUS, MARTYR,
AT PRAENESTE IN ITALY,
Under the emperor Aurelian.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY,
Agapitus, M., at Praeneste in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 0129
BY G. C.
§ I. The arena of the holy Martyr, his ancient cult, and the various copies of the Acts.
The most illustrious Joseph Maria Suarez, bishop of Vaison, in his Praeneste antiqua, which he published at Rome in the year 1655, book 1, chapter 5, describes the site of the city of Praeneste in these words: The site of the city of Praeneste is described, But since uncertain
as the origin of the city and of its name may be, so much the more certain is its situation, which lies in Latium, the first province of Italy, inland, and near to the Aequi and the Hernici, and among the mountains, or in a mountainous region, not far from the city of Rome, from which it is distant toward the summer sunrise twenty-one thousand paces, or one hundred and seventy stadia, between Tibur — from which it lies twelve thousand paces, or one hundred stadia, toward the Eurus — and Anagni; in sight of Rome, upon a lofty site on the southern flank of the mountain. Formerly indeed it rose both upon the topmost ridge of the mountain, where even today the citadel is inhabited, and at the very roots of the mountain, where very many monuments of grottoes and ancient walls survive beneath the Temple of Fortune, which, built upon the slope of the mountain, rose step by step in a work of the utmost magnificence. But now upon the ruins of that Temple a palace is raised after the fashion of a theater, from which there opens a most pleasant and delightful prospect over the fields below, and over the fertile valleys toward Algidus, and as far as the hills of Tusculum and beyond.
[2] This was the arena of St. Agapitus, the martyr of this day, which Ferdinand Ughelli, in the latest Venetian edition of Italia sacra, volume 1, column 191 and the following, describes still more fully; at which St. Agapitus underwent martyrdom, and, after enumerating the various vicissitudes of the same city, he has in the same place, column 193, these words that come nearer to our purpose: But as forgetful antiquity has buried the origin and founder of the city of Praeneste, so, the same antiquity spreading darkness over the times, it could not easily be known when it drank in the light of the Gospel. It is certain, however, that from the times of the emperor Aurelian, Agapitus, a most valiant boy of fifteen years, bore at Praeneste the illustrious palm of martyrdom, of whom the Roman Martyrology makes honorable mention on the XVIII day of the month of August; and the people of Praeneste even now venerate and honor him as their chief patron Saint. The same holy martyr Agapitus is the patron of the cathedral church, in which twelve (Nicholas Coleti in his Addition notes that they are now eighteen in number) Canons with an archpriest, and other Clergy, are numbered.
[3] I judge that the cult of this most valiant Athlete needs no laborious proof, as the ancient Martyrologies attest, since it is most ancient, and is noted on this day not only in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory and in another which Joseph Maria Thomasius published, but also in the Hieronymian Martyrology, and in all the other Latin ones that everywhere followed, down to the Roman which we use to this day, in which at the XVIII of August we read the following: At Praeneste, the birthday of St. Agapitus the martyr, who, being fifteen years of age and burning with the love of Christ, was seized by order of the emperor Aurelian, and first beaten a very long while with raw sinews, then suffered heavier torments under the prefect Antiochus; thereafter, when by the emperor's command he was thrown to lions and was in no way harmed, he was struck with the sword of the officers to receive his crown. This announcement is evidently excerpted from Usuard, who commemorates the same Martyr on this day in almost the same words. Yet in both those Martyrologies there occurs this difference worthy of note, that in Usuard's the emperor is named Aurelius, and there Antiochus is called governor and not prefect. Rabanus, however, calls this Antiochus a king, doubtless from the faulty Acts of which we shall treat below.
[4] Meanwhile let us hear the brief elogium of the same holy Martyr, or rather the compendium of his Acts, and whose deeds Ado briefly narrates. which Ado composed for the same day thus: Near the city of Praeneste, at the thirty-third milestone from the City (others reckon the twenty-first or the twenty-third milestone from the City), the birthday of St. Agapitus the martyr, under the emperor Aurelian, Antiochus being governor. Being fifteen years of age and burning with the love of Christ for martyrdom, he was seized by the emperor's order and first beaten a long while with raw sinews; then he was handed over to the governor, that he might be driven to sacrifice; who shut him up in a most harsh and most dark prison, and for four days denied him all food. Thence he was brought out to the governor, who ordered burning coals to be laid upon his head. And when the Martyr gave thanks to God, he was beaten with scourges and hung up naked, with his head turned downward, a sharp smoke being made beneath. And when he said to the governor, "Your wisdom and your vanity labors in smoke," he is again beaten with scourges by four men succeeding one another. Then the ministers of the devil poured boiling water upon his belly and broke his jaws. Meanwhile the judge, falling from his tribunal, was taken up by his attendants and laid upon a bed, and, perceiving the power of God in the Martyr, after a little while gave up his wretched soul. But concerning blessed Agapitus word was brought to the emperor, who ordered the blessed Man to be cast to lions; but the beasts, made gentle, bowed themselves to the Martyr's feet to lick them. Seeing this, the ministers of the crime took the holy Martyr away from the midst, and came over against the city of Praeneste, where there are two columns, and there they struck him with the sword on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of September. His body was taken away by night by the Christians, and laid at the first milestone from the city in a field, in a new sarcophagus found there by the divine will. This synopsis Ado probably drew together, or corrected, from the ancient and longer Acts of St. Agapitus, of which we shall now indicate the various copies.
[5] We have various copies of the Acts, In various Manuscript codices of our Museum and in other transcripts the Acts of St. Agapitus have this beginning: Under Antiochus, a pagan king, there was a certain boy named Agapitus, fearing God, etc. Then there appears in them a prefect or governor, who is first called Attalus and afterward Anastasius the Cornicularius. The most eminent Baronius on this day, in his notes on the Roman Martyrology, observes that similar Acts of the same Martyr are extant in Mombritius, which he pronounces to be exceedingly corrupted. Long since our Papebroch, on occasion of St. Venantius of Camerino on the XVIII of May, that is, in volume IV of that month after page 144, also published these Acts of St. Agapitus, which agree so far with those of Venantius that either these seem taken from those, or those from these — as the curious reader who is willing to compare them together will easily observe.
[6] some of which are more tolerable than others, Besides, from a Manuscript codex of the library of Monte Cassino, written in Lombard letters, as is noted in the margin of our transcript, we have another copy of the Acts, in which the martyrdom of St. Agapitus is likewise placed under king Antiochus. But in these there occur certain singular things at variance with the others: for whereas in the other Acts St. Agapitus is first led to the city of Praeneste to be thrown to lions, in these he is said to have been brought up at Praeneste and to have led there the monastic life. Hence the learned reader sees at first glance how ill king Antiochus and a monastery agree with those times. Wherefore the most illustrious Suarez, concerning these as well as the preceding Acts, unless I am mistaken, in his Praeneste antiqua, book 2, chapter 3, candidly passed the following judgment: That those Acts have been exceedingly corrupted, Cardinal Baronius indicates; I fear also that they are mutilated, since I do not find in them the martyrdom of Porphyrius, which the aforesaid Baronius asserts to be described in them. I have therefore polished them as far as I could, and filled them out: for it was not to be borne that a monastery should be woven in for a church, a governor for a prefect, king Antiochus for the emperor Aurelian, and other things of that kind. Besides, in the other Acts it is handed down that St. Agapitus's Christian profession was reported to the tyrant, whereas in these the holy Martyr is said to have met the tyrant and of his own accord to have sharply rebuked him. Lastly, these Cassinese Acts are adorned with various episodes, and we shall publish them in the first place after this Preliminary Commentary, that the curious reader may the more easily judge for himself and compare them with the other and shorter ones, which we shall print in the second place from the Burgundian Manuscript, and of which latter we shall now say a few things by way of preface.
[7] At least more tolerable are the Acts of the same Martyr which are more tolerable, since they place the martyrdom of St. Agapitus which occur in other Manuscript codices, and of which this is the beginning: At that time, when the most impious emperor Aurelian was carrying on a most savage persecution against the Christians throughout the whole Roman empire, a certain governor named Antiochus exercised the prefectorial power at Rome, worse in all things than his master. Certainly that in the time of Aurelian, who reigned from the year of Christ 270 to the year 275, a persecution was stirred up against the Christians, Lucius Caecilius, or Lactantius, who was near to those times, testifies in his work On the Deaths of the Persecutors, number 6, in this manner: Aurelian, who was by nature frantic and headlong, though he remembered the captivity of Valerian, yet, forgetting his crime and his punishment, provoked the wrath of God by cruel deeds. But it was not permitted him even to accomplish what he had planned; rather he was cut off at once amid the beginnings of his fury. His bloody writings had not yet reached the further provinces, and already at Caenophrurium, which is a place of Thrace, he himself lay bloody on the ground, slain by his own friends upon a certain false suspicion. Although the cruel edicts of that emperor did not reach the further provinces before his death, nevertheless they could at once be carried to the city of Praeneste, which is near Rome.
[8] Further, Nicholas le Nourry, a most learned Benedictine, in his Dissertation on the aforesaid work of Lucius Caecilius, chapter 7, article 3, illustrates the words of that author with this explanation: in the persecution of the emperor Aurelian; This persecution stirred up by Aurelian was therefore exceedingly brief. But it is a wonder, nevertheless, why some should assert without hesitation that no martyrs were then made: for since Caecilius wrote that Aurelian's edicts had not reached the further provinces, he indicates clearly and openly enough that they had been published in the nearer ones. And surely there seems no room for doubting that the heathen, and especially the priests and sacrificers of the gods, abusing these edicts as soon as they were published, put to death many Christians tortured with the accustomed punishments. Nay, we learn also from Eusebius that Aurelian was urged by the counsels of certain men to stir up a persecution against the Christians, and that while he was still living a rumor of this matter was spread everywhere. And who will not easily persuade himself that the gentiles, having been given this occasion of glutting their hatred against the Christians, did not then spare their blood? Now it must be seen at about what time this persecution of the emperor Aurelian began.
[9] The most illustrious Suarez fixes the martyrdom of St. Agapitus in the year of Christ 272, but against the year of Christ 272, when in his Praeneste antiqua, book 2, chapter 3, he writes thus: Moreover there lie hidden whatever things it is likely were piously and bravely done by Christians at Praeneste, from the time when St. Peter set foot there down to that most celebrated contest which the most noble boy Agapitus undauntedly underwent for the faith of Christ, in the consulship of Antiochianus and Orfitus, that is, in the year MXXIII from the founding of the City, and CCLXXII from the birth of Christ, Aurelian Augustus being emperor, under Antiochus the governor, or Flavius Antiochianus himself, Prefect of the City: for often the Prefects of the City are called governors in the Martyrologies, and their jurisdiction extended to the hundredth milestone from the City; whence in the sacred histories martyrs are read to have been condemned by their sentence at Interamna and elsewhere. But against this chronology
there occur to me several difficulties, which I now set before learned readers to be examined.
[10] to which some authors assign it, First, in nearly all the consular Fasti which Peter Reland, after laborious collection, published at Utrecht in the year 1715, I find at the year of Christ 270 the consuls Antiochianus and Orfitus, of whom the former is also called Antiochus in the Lesser Florentine Fasti, as may be seen in the cited work of Reland at this year of Christ 270. Secondly, in the same place, at the year of Christ 272, which the most illustrious Suarez assigned, the consuls reckoned are Quietus and Voldumianus, in whose place Metius Falconius and Nicomachus are said to have been substituted. Thirdly, among the Prefects of the City of Rome, whom Theodore Janson van Almeloveen published at Amsterdam in the year 1705 after his consular Fasti, there is placed at the year of Christ 272 Flavius Antiochianus, who twice before, namely in the years 269 and 270, had administered the prefecture of the same City. Finally the learned Emanuel Schelstrate, Prefect of the Vatican library, in his Antiquitas Ecclesiae exhibits a like series of consuls and Prefects of the City from an ancient codex, and in volume 1 of that work, page 528, at the year of Christ 272 he reckons the Prefect of the City together with the Consuls of that year thus: In the consulship of Quietus and Voldumianus, Flavius Antiochianus, P. V. We have therefore in the year of Christ 272 Aurelian reigning, and Antiochus or Antiochianus prefect of the City, so that we may uphold these more tolerable Acts of St. Agapitus and the compendium of Ado.
[11] Yet there remains an intricate knot, to the loosing of which I confess myself unequal, an intricate difficulty is raised, and which Pagi in his Criticism on the Annals of Baronius proposes against the aforesaid chronology at this very year of Christ 272, number 4, in these words: Baronius in his notes on the Roman Martyrology had accurately written that the Aurelianic persecution was brief; but on account of the vast number of those who underwent martyrdom while Aurelian was emperor, he changed this opinion in his Annals, and fixed its beginning in the present year of Christ. All afterward followed Baronius, against the faith of the ancients, who handed down that it was very brief. But if it had been decreed in the present year, not only would it have lasted for several years; but Aurelian would at the same time have favored the Christians and raged against them, which no one will persuade himself of: for in this year he issued an imperial edict against Paul of Samosata, as we have just said. Nay, Eusebius, book 7, chapter 30, after speaking of the emperor's affection toward the Christians, says: "But in process of time, thinking otherwise concerning us, he began to be urged by the counsels of certain men to stir up a persecution against our people." The emperor's judgment in favor of the Roman Pontiff, therefore, and the deposition of Paul of Samosata preceded the persecution, and this was not stirred up save in process of time after the imperial edict, as the cited Eusebius teaches, who therefore confirms in his History what he had already written in his Chronicle — namely, that Zenobia was captured in the present year, and that IN PROCESS OF TIME, that is, toward the end of Aurelian's reign, the persecution was decreed by him. If anyone shall be willing to weigh here the preceding and following arguments of Pagi, he will doubtless see more clearly that in the year of Christ 272 that bloody persecution of the Christians had not yet been decreed by Aurelian.
[12] I know indeed that in our Work various martyrdoms are placed in the earlier years of the emperor Aurelian; [although the Martyr seems more probably to have suffered under the emperor Aurelian.] but at that time the book of Lactantius, or Lucius Caecilius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors had not yet appeared, from which it is clear that that universal edict against the Christians was not published by Aurelian save about the end of his reign. Besides, it may have happened that earlier, under Aurelian's rule, certain impious and greedy prefects of provinces put Christians to death under some other pretext and seized their goods for themselves. Whatever the case may be about the certain time of this glorious contest, on account of the difficulty of Pagi that has been reported, I have not expressed in the margin a determined year of the martyrdom; but, following Ado, who very probably had the more ancient Acts before his eyes, I have placed the martyrdom of St. Agapitus under the emperor Aurelian, although Usuard on this day in his Martyrology writes that this holy Martyr was seized and put to death by order of the emperor Aurelius. To these add the Besançon Breviary of the year 1590, in which the feast of St. Agapitus is kept on this day on account of his sacred relics, and which asserts in the second Lesson that he suffered under the emperor Aurelius Alexander; but this is not likely, since that Aurelius Alexander was always most kindly disposed toward the Christians, as may be seen in Tillemont, volume 3 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 250 and following. Yet on account of that expression of Usuard's one might suspect that St. Agapitus was crowned with the laurel of martyrdom under other emperors who, among their other names, had the name Aurelius in common. But I hold to the opinion of Ado, as I have said, until someone shall assign another emperor from more ancient monuments. Now I proceed to illustrate the posthumous glory of our holy Martyr.
§ II. Churches built or restored in honor of this Martyr, his various relics, and certain miracles.
At Praeneste two churches were built in honor of St. Agapitus, It is not known at what time a church was first built at Praeneste in honor of St. Agapitus; but that it is very ancient is clear from the Book of Pontiffs of Anastasius the Librarian, who among the other deeds of St. Leo III, Roman Pontiff, records this in the Paris edition of the year 1649, page 142: But the aforesaid venerable Pontiff restored anew and for the better the whole roofing of the basilica of blessed Agapitus the martyr, which is set in the city of Praeneste, and likewise the roofing of another basilica situated beside the same basilica, which were already about to fall through excessive age. If this church was already about to fall through excessive age in the time of Pope Leo III, who passed to the Blessed in the year of Christ 816, it is easily gathered that it was built from time immemorial. There seems to have been there a twofold church, in which altars of St. Agapitus were consecrated in the years of Christ 1116 and 1117, as appears from two inscriptions which the most illustrious Suarez reports in Praeneste antiqua, book 1, chapter 12. But the church of St. Agapitus which was built at Rome by Pope Felix III beside the basilica of St. Laurence seems rather to be attributed to St. Agapitus the martyr who suffered together with St. Sixtus the Pope, and whose feast is celebrated on the sixth day of this month. On account of this sameness of name there arose perhaps also the confusion between the sacred relics of both these Martyrs, of which we shall now treat.
[14] and elsewhere several churches claim his body for themselves, Various churches claim for themselves the body of the St. Agapitus of this day, as is plain from the Index of the bodies of Saints assigned to various places, which Philip Ferrari prefixed to his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and in which he reports that the body of Agapitus the martyr is placed at Praeneste in his own church, at Rome in the church of St. Tryphon, at Parma in the cathedral church, and at Milan in the church of St. Stephen. To these add the most illustrious Suarez, who in Praeneste antiqua, book 2, chapter 5, records on the affirmation of Regius that the body of St. Agapitus rests at Rome in the chief altar of St. Mary of Consolation. But Panciroli, in The Hidden Treasures of Rome, Region 1, church 9, Fioravante Martinelli in his Roma sacra, page 400, and other describers of the City testify that the relics of SS. Felicissimus and Agapitus, who underwent martyrdom with St. Sixtus the Pope, were translated to this church of the Mother of God. I suspect that certain other claimants of that sacred body have fallen into the same or a like error, or have named the whole for a part. Whence Pietro Paolo Bosca, in his Milanese Martyrology at the XVIII day of August, after enumerating several churches which contend among themselves about the body of this day's holy Martyr, rightly judges of the matter thus: Who then would believe that one and the same Agapitus lies in so many cities? Wherefore I judge that there were several Agapiti; yet in such a way that whoever possesses the body of another Agapitus thinks him to be the Praenestine Martyr whom the universal Church honors today, and whose relics Baronius, in the Notes on the Roman Martyrology at this day, hands down to be preserved at Praeneste.
[15] which opinion is to be understood with due allowance, For the rest, on this occasion I shall transcribe a useful admonition which it will often be profitable to remember elsewhere, and which Philip Ferrari prefixes to the said Index of the bodies of Saints assigned to various places, in this manner: It can by no means happen that the same body, endowed with however great sanctity, should be found in several places: for this — that it should be in several, or even in innumerable places (if such there were), and however far apart, at the same moment of time — belongs to the Body of the Lord alone in the Sacrament of the Altar. But as to the bodies of several Saints being everywhere affirmed to rest in different places, either some of those who boast that they have them must be deceived, or in speaking they must be using that most customary figure of the whole for the part. For usage, by a certain pious extension, has obtained that those who have the relics of some holy body, whether bones or ashes, are said to have the body itself. Often too it happens that the bodies of Saints are translated from one place to another, and while one writer mentions the former place and another the latter, several places seem to be assigned to the same body. This also is the chief cause of deception, that when the bodies of Saints have been secretly or by stealth carried off and translated elsewhere, the tablets and inscriptions remaining in the former place, they are believed to be there so long as the theft is not detected. It happens also that an empty title and inscription of some Saint is found beside an unknown body, which is therefore thought to be that Saint's; as also that the body of some Saint is sought by more powerful persons, in place of which those who, as inferiors, dare not openly refuse it, and yet are unwilling to be deprived of their treasure, substitute another; in which way the same body obtains two places, one in fact, the other in opinion. These things which we have said we might have confirmed by examples; but we have thought it right to abstain from them, lest anyone should take it ill. When therefore you shall have heard or read that the body of the same Saint is in two or even in more places, you will judge that the part is taken for the whole, or the contrary, or that some cause of deception among those mentioned has come between.
[16] To these I add another sufficiently frequent cause of error, or arises from mistake. which is furnished by the bodies of unknown Martyrs drawn out of the Roman cemeteries, whom we commonly call "baptized": for when names are imposed upon such sacred bodies, such as celebrated and well-known martyrs bore, often the possessors of those bodies boast that they preserve the relics of some more celebrated martyr who had such a name, and attribute to him the Acts which are narrated of another known martyr of the same name. Examples of this matter occur everywhere in our Work, and especially on the XXIX day of July in the Appendix to the Acts of SS. Lucilla, Flora, Eugenius and the other Martyrs; where, in volume VII of that month, page 31 and following, we showed that the bodies of a certain holy martyr Eugenius are found in various places,
drawn out of the Roman crypts, and that there are fitted to them the feast-day and the Acts by which some known holy Martyr of the same name is celebrated. I doubt whether something similar did not happen to the nuns of St. Agnes at Bologna, who on this XVIII day of August venerate the body of St. Agabitus or Agapitus, which they received from Pope Innocent X out of the Roman cemetery of St. Cyriaca, as Masini testifies in his Bologna perlustrata, pages 423 and 463. However that may be, we shall now enumerate several sacred relics which are said to belong to the St. Agapitus of this day.
[17] In the first place Aegidius Gelenius, in his work On the Greatness of Colonia Agrippina, book 4, page 714, has these words at the XVIII day of August: At Cologne, an arm of St. Agapitus: The commemoration of St. Agapitus; for his arm is honored, together with the arm of St. Helena, in the church of St. Gereon. Further, he there refers the reader to page 264, where I find nothing about St. Agapitus except the following: The third reliquary, likewise formed in the shape of an arm, is the gift of Arnold the Provost and Herman the Dean, and contains relics of SS. Sixtus, Agapitus, and Felicissimus. From these passages compared together I should judge that the St. Agapitus of this day has been confounded by Aegidius Gelenius with the other of the same name, who together with St. Sixtus the Pope and St. Felicissimus obtained the palm of martyrdom. But from pronouncing this judgment positively I am held back by Erhard Winheim the Carthusian, who in his Sacrarium Agrippinae, page 41, reckons that arm of St. Agapitus, which Gelenius had said was honored in the church of St. Gereon, among the other relics of the Cathedral church of Cologne, and attributes it to the St. Agapitus of this day in these words: Besides, the arm of St. Agapitus, who, being fifteen years of age and burning with the love of Christ, was seized by order of the emperor Aurelian, first beaten with sinews, then, enduring grave torments from the governor Antiochus, thereafter cast to lions by the emperor's command and not harmed, was at last struck with the sword to receive his crown; whose birthday falls near Praeneste, thirty-three miles from the City, on the XVIII of August. These things do not agree together sufficiently for us to pass a certain judgment. Wherefore we desire to learn from the learned men of Cologne on what day and in what place they venerate the relics of this holy Martyr.
[18] The Benedictines of Liessies in Belgium also think that the relics of this day's St. Agapitus are preserved among them, The Benedictines of Liessies venerate certain bones of the same Martyr, concerning which the Reverend Master Philippe Brasseur in the Cimeliarchium of the church of Liessies, page 120, writes thus: I close the group of four patrons of Liessies, only after I shall have added to them St. Agapitus the martyr (as one increased for the protection of the place and for the frequency of miracles). Now the relics of this holy Martyr (that is, three bones), once sent from Constantinople with the rest, the men of Liessies possess, and these are remarkable not so much for their quantity as for the benefit of the cures they work… Further, they are wont to invoke the manifest help of this holy Martyr for averting or curing pains of the belly, gripings, the colic passion, and the like; and chiefly for removing these and other diseases of infants; accordingly mothers, for the same cause, after childbirth send their newborn and baptized children hither, or bring them themselves to St. Agapitus with offerings; and he is and is held to be the patron of infants and boys — perhaps from this, that he underwent martyrdom while still wholly young: for he is painted as a schoolboy, holding out in his left hand an inkstand with a palm and a book, but laying his right upon his heart, and trampling a sword beneath his feet. Such a statue of him is seen at Mons in the new oratory of the refuge of Liessies, which was lately dedicated to him and to St. Thomas of Canterbury, as the inscription set on high in the wall along the outer circuit testifies. It runs thus: Thomas, XXXVIII abbot, and the Convent of Liessies gave and dedicated this to SS. Thomas of Canterbury and Agapitus, Martyrs. In the year MDCXXXIX.
[19] translated from Constantinople into Belgium, He suffered at Praeneste under the emperor Aurelian in the year CCLXXV. But in the year MCCVIII his relics were brought to Liessies, illustrious from that time by various miracles, which nevertheless were not handed down to the memory of posterity. Nor ought it to seem a wonder to some that God grants so many and so great miracles to be wrought here through that Saint, considering, forsooth, the smallness of his relics: for some have thought (and the common people think so today) that the whole body, or at least a notable part of the body, translated from the city of Constantinople, is had at Liessies. But let them attend to the parallel, that when the body of St. Sebastian is asserted to have been translated to Soissons in Gaul, it ought not to be understood of the whole body, but only of a part, as Baronius testifies in the ninth volume of his Annals at the year DCCCXXVI… From which parallel I infer that the men of Liessies are neither deceived nor deceive if they say that they have St. Agapitus among them, although they keep only three small portions of that sacred body:… For we hear and know that not only at Liessies, but in other places also which have shared from Liessies in a little bone or even a little dust of this Martyr, very great and frequent miracles occur, so that we may deservedly say that the same Saint is whole at Liessies in any particle whatever of his body, just as he is at Praeneste, since he is not diminished or halved in the working of his powers. It must nevertheless be confessed that several abbots of preceding centuries gave a part of the aforesaid holy Martyr's relics to divers places subject to Liessies, as at Sarto-Monachorum in the country of Namur, and in the Refuges of Mons and of Ath; namely for the greater cult and veneration of the Saint.
[20] which is hard to believe, I readily believe that miracles are wrought at the smallest particles of a sacred body; but I do not sufficiently understand how the Benedictines of Liessies received from the city of Constantinople these sacred relics of St. Agapitus of Praeneste. Wherefore not altogether rashly I suspect that these sacred bones of Liessies belong to some St. Agapitus who underwent martyrdom in the East. For already in our Work we have treated of two holy Agapiti, of whom one, at the second day of April, is said to have suffered at Thessalonica in Macedonia; while about the martyrdom of the other in Phrygia there is discussion at the XXIV day of March. Perhaps other Eastern Saints of the same name will hereafter have to be illustrated in our Work, to some one of whom these relics of Liessies, received from Constantinople, seem more probably to belong. Yet Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology at this day makes mention of these same relics of Liessies, and ascribes them to St. Agapitus of Praeneste thus: On the same day, in the monastery of Liessies on the river Helpe, not far from Avesnes, a town of Hainaut, the veneration of the relics of St. Agapitus the martyr, put to death with dire torments at Praeneste in the fifteenth year of his age, by order of the emperor Aurelian, for his constancy in the faith. It is enough for me that these are the true bones of some Saint, as is abundantly shown by the frequent miracles and benefits.
[21] I do not know what sort of relics of St. Agapitus of Praeneste, or how great, the Benedictines of Kremsmünster in Upper Austria claim for themselves, and the monks of Kremsmünster in Austria among whom Simon Rettenpacher, in the Annals of that monastery, book 1, chapter 10, hands down the following: The monastery abounded in copious revenues by the bounty of princes, and religious discipline flourished more and more day by day, when the supreme Pontiff Hadrian the First adorned the place also with a sacred treasure, sending the mortal remains of the most holy martyr Agapitus, that nothing might be lacking either to its splendor or to its piety. Whether he granted this to the prayers of Tassilo or to the friendship of Charlemagne is unascertained: for the ancient monuments are silent. I should believe, however, that by that gift Tassilo was provoked to like offices of liberality. That the body was brought hither is asserted not so much by ancient tradition as by miracles; and confirmed besides by the most ancient charters of the emperor Arnulf, written seven hundred and eighty-four years ago, although Bernard of Noricum complains that the history of the translation long since perished through frequent fires and the ruin of the monastery. To describe in few words the deeds of the holy Martyr, most celebrated in all the world, I have thought not foreign to my design. Then he narrates at sufficient length the Acts of St. Agapitus, such as we shall subjoin below to this Preliminary Commentary.
[22] Then Rettenpacher, after narrating the martyrdom of the holy Athlete, venerate the chief parts of his body, brought from Rome, adds these words to our purpose: His sacred body, taken away by night by the Christians to the first milestone from the city of Praeneste and enclosed in a new sarcophagus, was buried with due honor. Thence at length, after five centuries, being carried away into Noricum by Hadrian's will, it shone like some beneficent star, and grew famous by many prodigies in our church; of which I subjoin a few, to increase the devotion of the faithful and the veneration of so great a Patron. You hear that here everywhere the body is named which was carried away from Italy into Austria; but by the usual phrase understand a part for the whole, according to what Gabriel Bucelin writes in the Sacrarium Benedictinum which he added to his Menology, on the XVIII day of August, concerning the relics of the same holy Martyr, in this manner: Notable relics of this most glorious Triumpher are had at Liessies; the chief parts of the body of St. Agapitus in the monastery of St. Agapitus at Kremsmünster. Hence you see that body is to be taken for parts of the body. But what these chief parts may be, I am thus far ignorant. Wherefore the men of Kremsmünster will be able to explain these more distinctly, and to contend with the other churches which glory in the body of the same St. Agapitus or in its chief parts. Besides, let them show from ancient instruments that these notable relics of theirs certainly belong to St. Agapitus of Praeneste.
[23] We meanwhile shall report the promised miracles of this holy Martyr, which Rettenpacher in the same place subjoins from an old manuscript thus: In the year MCCLXX a certain woman, who had resolved to offer by vow a gift at the chapel at the altar of the holy Virgin, and are famous for miracles. beneath which the remains of the glorious Martyr had been laid — translated thither by Henry the abbot in the year of the Lord MCCXXXII, when he was setting about a new building, the old one threatening ruin — changed her mind and determined to keep it for herself. But when she was making ready to go home, she was suddenly compelled by a hidden force to stay her step. Nor was she permitted to depart before, repenting of the deed and leaving the gift at the altar, she discharged herself of vow and of fault.
A blind woman, when by the merits and intercession of St. Agapitus she had recovered her health, and had not rendered due thanks, again lost the use of her eyes. Led to repentance, and the fault of ingratitude being expiated, she felt his help repeated, her sight being restored.
About the year one thousand three hundred a monk of this place, Leutold by name, had left upon the altar of the holy Martyr a tablet containing profane writings and irreligious verses, and had gone down to read a letter, when he was struck with sudden blindness. Mindful of his offense, after he removed the tablet he recovered his sight.
A certain blind man, when he had visited very many churches of the holy Martyrs and had sought their intercession in vain, being led to the remains of our patron Agapitus, in the sight of the exulting people beheld all things most clearly, and departed endowed with the most welcome use of his eyes.
A priest of Walpurga, deprived of the use of all his limbs, when he had heard that frequent miracles were wrought by St. Agapitus, ordered himself to be carried hither: and at his first coming indeed he was not perfectly cured; yet he felt a great easing of his pains. Being admonished by a vision or in sleep to return, when he had fulfilled the command he recovered entire health.
The aforementioned monk Leutold, now more advanced in age, began to suffer so from a rheum of the eye that he feared he would be wholly deprived of sight. He fled therefore to the help of the Queen of heaven and of blessed Agapitus, and sought their patronage until he recovered.
The sacristan of our church, entering by night the chapel of the holy Virgin, beheld before the altar a great throng of boys bearing torches before them and clothed in shining raiment. Terrified at the sight, he called a monk who was sleeping not far off: who, when he came, wondering took in with his eyes the light poured out on every side; but the heavenly spirits he could not behold. Yet to have seen the light sufficed for the testimony of the deed. Let these things said concerning certain relics and miracles of St. Agapitus suffice: for now a twofold translation of the sacred head must be examined, or rather related.
§ III. The head of the same holy Martyr is said to be preserved at Besançon in Burgundy and at Corneto in Tuscany.
How the head of St. Agapitus is kept at Corneto and at Besançon, The most illustrious Suarez, already praised several times, in his Praeneste antiqua, book 2, chapter 5, records both translations of this sacred head in these words: That honor was paid to the sacred bones of St. Agapitus in the very cradle of the Church can be hidden from no one: for his head was carried away from Praeneste and sent to the emperor Theodosius at Bisuntium or Vesontio (this is in Gaul the metropolis of the Sequani, whom they now call Burgundians) at the instance of Galla Placidia, mother of Valentinian III Augustus; and St. Chelidonius, the fifteenth archbishop of Besançon, in the middle of the choir of the upper church of St. Stephen (it is called the cemetery of the archbishops), an altar being there erected and great stones rolled to it, laid up the venerable remains or pledges. Long afterward the head of St. Agapitus was found by Hugh the archbishop on the XX day of April, on which day also it is honored there, and by St. Leo the Pope it was laid up within the greater altar, distinguished by the name of St. Agapitus. Walter indeed, or Gauthier, the XLVII archbishop, is read to have been marvelously cured by the help of St. Agapitus… Yet it is asserted, in the inscription of a silver image or reliquary of the year MCDXXXV, that John of the Vitelleschi, of Corneto, patriarch of Alexandria, when Praeneste was overthrown, translated the head of St. Agapitus into his native country, and gave it there to the fellowship or Convent of the Franciscan Fathers. Julius II, Supreme Pontiff, himself enclosed that head in silver beaten out to the likeness of the living face, and granted an indulgence in the year MDIII.
[25] If you should ask of this most learned prelate how it can be the most illustrious Suarez explains. that the head of St. Agapitus should exist and be honored both at Besançon among the Sequani and at Corneto among the Tuscans, in the chapter 5 just cited he answers that many have been deceived by sameness of name; and further, that in divers places not whole bodies or heads of Saints are found, but parts of those bodies and heads divided and distributed, and that the whole is named from a part. He illustrates his answer, among other instances, by this example: Is not the head of St. John the Baptist, he says, said to have been brought to Rome to the monastery of St. Silvester from Constantinople; at Angély in Gaul, translated from Alexandria; at Aosta on the borders of the Subalpines; at Lyons; and at Amiens, deposited in the year MCCVI by Walo — whereas a part of the skull sent by the emperor Copronymus to Pippin king of the Franks is kept at Angély, at Rome in St. Silvester's another part of the skull, at Aosta the chin or jaw, a part of it at Lyons, another likewise at Sesti in Calabria; while the face, except the upper chin, as far as a part of the forehead, is preserved at Amiens? And in the same manner it will rightly be determined that a part of the head or of the relics of St. Agapitus is at Corneto, another part of the head at Besançon, another of the relics in the monastery of Liessies, another at Rome in St. Mary the Consoler's. John of the Vitelleschi had brought those precious treasures to Corneto (Praeneste being destroyed); but when Praeneste was restored, that most excellent hero and most eminent Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and bishop of Praeneste, Marcantonio Colonna, carried back a part of the skull. If the people of Besançon and of Corneto, or of Praeneste, are not content with a part of that sacred head, let them pursue the suit among themselves, which can be decided only by an accurate inspection of those relics or by a faithful description of them.
LECT. I.
[26] Meanwhile we shall set before the curious reader the old history of the translation to Besançon and of the finding, We report it from an author of the eleventh century, written by an author of the eleventh century, which our Chifflet once obligingly sent us. It is excerpted from the Legendary of SS. John and Stephen of Besançon, where, divided into nine Lessons, it runs thus: After almighty God, as the Christian religion increased, willed that the clod of His martyr Agapitus, lying in a lowly place, should be more gloriously bestowed, and willed that to those faithful who were in His house the precious treasure of this holy body should be revealed, the Clergy of Praeneste with the people, according to the command of the Roman Pope, going most devoutly to the place a mile from the city where he lay, and opening his sarcophagus with all reverence, carried him back to the city with crosses and banners and every ornament, singing praises to God, and there honorably bestowed his venerable limbs.
LECT. II.
LECT. III.
LECT. IV.
[27] At that same time the Roman people was governed by the rule of Theodosius the Younger: to whom, that the head was carried to Besançon under the rule of Theodosius the Younger since he was a most perfect worshiper of the Christian religion, it had been shown in a divine vision that the arm of the blessed protomartyr Stephen, which John, patriarch of Jerusalem, being asked by his predecessor the emperor Honorius, had sent to Rome, and which the same Theodosius kept by him with all desire and honor, he was to send to the city of Chrysopolis, which is now called Besançon. Now this city in the parts of Gaul seemed to excel the other cities by its royal splendor and the beauty of its site, and by its natural, not hand-made, defense; concerning whose praise I judge it better to be silent than to say too little, and time admonishes us to hasten to other matters: for in this city a church had been dedicated in honor of St. Stephen, which the most loving Founder of all things had decreed, as now appears, to be amply exalted by the merits of His Saints, and which Helena the queen, mother of Constantine, had enriched far and wide with gifts and offerings, save that it had no relics of the body of that most blessed Protomartyr himself. The emperor therefore, most piously assenting to the divine vision, and adding to the gift of the holy arm other most precious gifts, sent to Chrysopolis the arm of lord Stephen, and with it the girdle of our Lord and Savior, and something also of the fringes of His garment, and likewise the comb of the most blessed Mary ever Virgin and a little of her hair; also the entire bodies of the holy martyrs Isidore and Epiphanius: but besides these the head, of which we now treat, of the most blessed martyr Agapitus. Concerning the other relics, therefore, in what places they are laid up, we forbear to speak for the present: for this the published book on the coming of the relics and the miracles of St. Stephen contains. But of the head of St. Agapitus I shall treat.
LECT. V.
[28] The head, therefore, was laid up by the venerable archbishop Chelidonius, who then presided over the city, the head of the same Martyr having been brought thither, in the aforesaid church, namely in the middle of the choir: above which an altar, supported by four silver columns, had been most fittingly built. But because it had not been so handed down to memory in writing, save so far as the not sufficiently sure report of certain men suggested, that most precious gift had long lain hidden: yet by the miracles which the Lord wrought through his merit the divine power had become known to all who dwelt round about: for there sight was given to the blind, hearing to the deaf, walking to the lame, speech to the dumb, cleansing to lepers; in short, the Martyr guarded the safety of those who sought him, healed wounds, and diseases of divers kinds were driven away by him. Thus, all the parts of healing being found, there was no room for doubt concerning the whole in the Martyr. Whence, since a very great multitude of his miracles presents itself, which were partly seen and heard by the inhabitants of the city, and partly believed on the report of illustrious old men, we have thought it fitting to insert particularly in this our little work one which is known to have been done among our own people, and which we have often heard from the mouth of the venerable archbishop Walter himself.
LECT. VI.
LECT. VII.
[29] For this man was endowed with much simplicity, fortified with the virtue of patience, magnificent in humility, conspicuous in charity; whom the weak and feeble nature of his body at a certain time so infected with accidents, and he was so sick in all ways with fevers (as he himself was wont to relate), that he had wholly lost the use of food and drink, and scarcely gasped with failing breath. who long afterward, appearing to the sick prelate Walter, restored his health, But when he had been helped by no aid of physicians, and had perceived beforehand that human help failed him, he determined to seek the divine, and to flee to Christ, the chief of physicians: for he commanded himself to be carried to the altar of blessed Agapitus, approached strengthened by hope and faith, and besought the Martyr of Christ with heart and mind that he would succor him with the Lord. O wondrous mercy of God, wondrous power, which never fails them that believe! For the Almighty Himself, who sent His angel to blessed Peter to loose him from prison, richly heard His servant and martyr Agapitus praying for this sick man, and Christ appointed him to come from the seats above to loose the bonds of his infirmity. For blessed Agapitus was seen to stand by in the likeness of a shining holy boy, and to bless him with the sign of the Cross by his own hand, and in that manner to suggest a saving antidote: Arise, he said, Walter, secure of soundness, most certain of health, most joyful of the vision; doubt nothing, hesitate at nothing, for behold, thou art made whole. Which voice assuredly so restored our prelate to health as if he had never borne any pain of infirmity. When the courses of many other years had passed, and the church was now of exceeding age, and, the joints of the walls being almost loosened, lay open in ruins, Walter, that is, the archbishop of blessed memory, whom we have mentioned above, began to build another of ampler size, containing within its circuit the former church, with walls not too widely distant from one another; who did not fulfill what he had conceived in mind: for straightway, yielding to nature, he rested in the Lord.
LECT. VIII.
[30] To him succeeded Hugh the archbishop, a man most strenuous in all things, who, though he was most noble in birth, and whose successor Hugh took pains to seem nobler in deed and character: for the city at that time, through the negligence no less than the weakness of its pastors, had fallen under the power of lay princes. And the Clergy shone with no discipline, no religion. So great a ruin and sloth had everywhere seized them (for rashly each man lived after his own pleasure). But that excellent man both snatched the city by his industry from the jaws of the tyrants, ordered the clergy in discipline and habit, had them instructed in letters in divers places, taught them to live religiously; and he restored to the city many things which it had lost through the discord that arose between the bishops and the princes. The toll and the mint, which were of the greatest ornament to cities, he restored when they had been abolished, and, being restored, prudently distributed them to necessary uses: for the mint, which he had marked with the arm of the lord protomartyr Stephen, he so divided that two parts should serve the uses of the archbishop, and the third the Canons of blessed John the Evangelist: likewise of the toll he assigned two parts to the uses of the archbishop; and the third accordingly to the congregation of the blessed Mary the Mother of God
and of Paul the Apostle, which he himself restored when it had been utterly destroyed; which place he built anew, which he honored with ecclesiastical ornaments as far as he could, and which indeed he so loved in his life that he chose it as the dwelling of his burial.
LECT. IX.
[31] Lastly he fortified the city with such authority, both by privileges from the Pope and by decrees from the emperor, found the same relics that had been hidden away, that no lay person should presume to hold lordship in it any longer. The goods also belonging to the sustenance of the archbishop, and likewise the goods of the congregations dwelling there, he divided of himself, both those which he himself bestowed and those which he found, and confirmed them all with protection; that they might abide unshaken in the same firmness, since they are strengthened by the hand of the Pope and by the decrees and privileges of the emperors. And the church of the lord protomartyr Stephen, whose is the whole possession of the bishopric, and by whose patronage, after God, the whole city lives and subsists, which his predecessor Walter, as we have related above, had begun — this he not only shaped with material work, but also exalted with clerics of good character and learned in letters; he wholly restored the congregation which had fallen away; he increased it with his benefices and patrimonies, and generously and excellently adorned it with ornaments of gold and silver, with copes for the choir-stalls, and with books also: finally he carefully built the offices which he had recognized to be necessary for the use of the Brethren. Now when he ordered the lower church, surrounded by the circuit of the new church as was said above, to be destroyed, since it was already tottering through excessive age, and saw the altar of St. Agapitus, set in the middle of the choir as we have mentioned, broken by certain falls of masonry, he carefully made search for the treasure hidden there, as mere report alone had it. The stone, therefore, that was set beneath the altar is raised at his command by a great force of men (for it was of no small size), yet so that the head of the holy Martyr which they sought was not yet found. Whereat the archbishop and the rest who stood by him are not a little saddened: for the prelate thought that he had believed in vain what he had heard from the old men, and in vain also had honored the relics of the martyr there. At length a second stone of wondrous size is lifted; yet no traces whatever of the relics are seen. But when a third was lifted, O what and how great was the exultation among those to whom despair had already come! For what had long been desired was found, what had long been sought was discovered, what was hidden was laid open, what was doubted was made certain: for the head of the most blessed Martyr Agapitus, while it was beheld, brought no small joy and gladness, which had before flashed with so many miracles and mighty works. The drachma which had been lost being found, the neighborhood rejoiced together. The holy head being found, which had long been hidden, the whole city triumphed. Nor was the joy of clergy and people over the finding of the head less than if they beheld the whole of blessed Agapitus present. Now the head of the most blessed martyr Agapitus was found on the XII Kalends of May, and laid up by the aforesaid lord Hugh the archbishop in an ivory casket of no small price, and so was long held in the highest veneration by clergy and people alike, until by the lord Pope Leo it was placed in the altar of St. Stephen together with the arm of the same protomartyr on the day of the dedication of the same church. This somewhat lengthy narrative has been abridged in the Besançon Breviary of the year 1590 at the XX day of April, and is comprised in three proper Lessons. Further, I shall now note a few things upon it in passing.
[32] the times of which translation and finding are assigned as best they may. In the first place, from this history the age of the author who wrote it can be gathered approximately: for at the end of the fifth Lesson he asserts that he received from the mouth of the prelate Walter himself the prodigious benefit which St. Agapitus, appearing to him, had bestowed. Hence it follows that that anonymous writer flourished before the middle of the eleventh century, since that Walter or Walterius, dying before the year 1032, left the see of Besançon, as may be seen in Jean-Jacques Chifflet in his Vesontio, part 2, page 194. But at what time the head of St. Agapitus, which the prelate Hugh of Besançon had happily found, was placed by Pope Leo IX himself in the altar of St. Stephen, the praised Chifflet teaches in part 2 of his Vesontio, page 205, where from an ancient tablet he reports a diploma of which this is the beginning: In the year one thousand and forty-eight from the Incarnation of the Lord, on the fifth day before the Nones of October, the altar of St. Stephen was consecrated by the lord Pope Leo IX, in honor of the Lord's Ascension, and of the most holy Mother of God Mary ever Virgin, and of the blessed protomartyr Stephen, and of St. John the Evangelist, and of the blessed Martyrs Vincent and Agapitus (whose head, together with the greater bone of the arm of St. Stephen and two joints from the spine of St. Vincent, was laid up by the Pope himself within the same altar), in the presence of bishops and abbots, and of vassals and people, who had assembled in infinite number, etc. But at what time that sacred head was first brought to Besançon can in some measure be drawn out from the episcopate of Chelidonius, prelate of Besançon, and the reign of Theodosius the Younger, concerning which consult the Chifflet just cited, part 2 of the Vesontio, page 98 and following. When both sets of the Acts of St. Agapitus had already been elucidated as well as might be by the Preliminary Commentary and the Annotations, Father Ignatius Pini, often praised elsewhere in our Work for his good offices, obligingly sent us from Rome another transcript of the Acts, taken from a Vatican codex. But after we had compared it with our Burgundian copy, we found the one almost wholly like the other: so that we judged that nothing on that account need be changed either in the Commentary or in the Annotations. Nothing therefore now remains but that we submit to the press the two different sets of Acts of St. Agapitus promised above, and illustrate them with the accustomed explanations.
ACTS
by an unknown author
From volume 147 of the Manuscript library of Monte Cassino, written in Lombard letters, as was noted in the margin of our transcript.
Agapitus, M., at Praeneste in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 0126
By an unknown author.
PROLOGUE.
The anonymous author, after a prologue, narrates, The glorious and praiseworthy victories of the holy Martyrs, which they won for the love of Christ our Lord and Redeemer, the heralds of the whole world resound, and the tongues of all nations praise together; and he is found to be utterly unprofitable who either does not desire to imitate their examples, or is not kindled with heavenly love, since, even though the savage sword of the persecutor be lacking, yet there is not lacking the devil, the kindler of evils, who sets alight the torches of vices; who also, if he does not defile the life of God's servants, unwillingly furnishes them the palm of victory. When therefore the battles of the holy Martyrs against the ancient enemy of the human race are brought to memory, let the mind burn toward the love of the citizens above, that at least by loving we may be fed with the sweetness of the heavenly life, if we are not yet able to make trial of it by tasting. For the fruit [] of the martyr will not be wanting, if the mind, raised up, be lifted to the contest of the spiritual life; for the Apostle says: Whatsoever things were written, were written for our instruction, that through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures we might have hope.* But why we have said these things by way of preface, let the course of the following reading show. Therefore, as by the historians the position of Italy is preferred above all the bounds and regions of the provinces, so it is certain that in it illustrious and celibate men have shone forth on the summit of the virtues, from the time when the doctrine of the holy Apostles shone everywhere: from whose college the venerable man Agapitus shone forth like a beam sent down from heaven.
Annotationsperhaps fructus fruit, for fluctus* wave
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's country, his upbringing, his fearless profession of the Christian faith, and his unshaken constancy amid blandishments, torments, and threats.
how St. Agapitus, living at Praeneste, He therefore, born at Rome of a noble family, led in the city of Praeneste a, which lies within the province of Valeria, a monastic b life under the habit of religion. For from the time when he left his own country and his father's wealth, he attached himself in the aforesaid city to a certain religious man named Porphyrius c, who, rearing him from boyhood, instructed him not slightly in the elements of letters, and made him most fully capable of spiritual teachings. And when he was completing the fifteenth year of his age, he began with all his strength to pant after the everlasting life, so that he desired rather to die for Christ than to be exalted by the favors of the present life.
[2] and burning with the desire of martyrdom, But the aforesaid Man of God, who had taken him to rear, when he had learned that his mind wished of its own accord to gird itself for the contest of martyrdom, restrained him, lest he should try unseasonably to thrust himself upon so vast a work, and lest the foundation of his faith should suffer some loss. For he said to him: Within the secret places of thy breast hide Christ, the sower of all good things, and, when He shall have called, come. But the Lord, who had already appointed him to be a co-heir among the sons of adoption, did not suffer him to be long covered with unfruitful silence, nor willed that the lamp which had hitherto lain hidden under the bushel should be concealed: but setting it upon a candlestick, He made it give light to all that are in His house.
[3] rebuked the tyrant of his own accord, At that same time there came forth from Rome a certain man named Antiochus d, who after a tyrannical fashion usurped for himself the title of king, and who had tortured many Christians with divers punishments for the name of Christ. He came into the parts of Valeria, and began, like a mad dog, to worry with his bites every one of the faithful. Meeting him, the most blessed martyr of Christ Agapitus rebuked him with a reproach of this kind, saying: Most wicked and most shameful of all men, why do you not cease to persecute the Saints of God, and to harass with hard torments those who do not cease to entreat God with assiduous prayers for the welfare and stability of the commonwealth and of all peoples? Moved by this speech, king Antiochus ordered him to be seized and brought to his tribunal. And he said to him: Of what authority are you proved to be, that you not only do not fear the majesty of princes, but do not even tremble to insult us with reproachful words to the public injury? Blessed Agapitus answered: My authority stands in the power of my God, who is to me an impregnable wall and the armor of salvation. Antiochus said: Is there for you any other God besides those whom we worship, and whom every dignity of the great adores? St. Agapitus answered: Do Jupiter e or Saturn, or the other names of demons, seem to you to be gods, when they were men defiled with the most monstrous crimes, whose images of bronze or gold you adorn and honor to the injury of the great God?
[4] Antiochus, seeing so great constancy in a boy, said in wonder: and fearlessly professed I desire to know of what condition you are, or of what family, or whence you have come hither. The holy martyr of God Agapitus answered: If you ask my country, I am a Roman, sprung of an illustrious family; but I was reared and taught from the cradle in the holy Church, which is the mother of all Catholics. Antiochus said: As I see, the Christians have steeped you in their arts, so that you neither fear princes nor are willing to render the sacred ceremonies to the divine powers. St. Agapitus answered: Say demons, and not gods: for from their images answers are given you for the deceiving of souls, that, when you have been deceived by them, they may mock you so long
until they lead you, wretched and lost, with them down to hell. Antiochus said: Hitherto I have deferred my own wrongs by playing the philosopher; but the blasphemies against my gods I shall not be able patiently to bear. Blessed Agapitus, smiling, answered: Which of the two is proved to be the greater, you or your gods? For when you try to defend them, you show them to be powerless and effeminate, since, that they may not be injured, they must rather seek to be avenged by you.
[5] While these things were doing, there stood forth one of the king's attendants the Christian faith, who said: My lord king, you will not be able to overcome this sacrilegious and stubborn fellow with words, if you lend the ears of your clemency to the windings of his speech. But examine him rather concerning the boldness of his presumption, and inquire more closely after the wealth of his patrimony, which he brought hither on coming from Rome, lest the commonwealth be diminished where it ought to have been increased. Hearing this, king Antiochus said to blessed Agapitus: For what cause have you come hither? St. Agapitus answered: Christ sent me to preach and to bear witness to all who consent with you, that they may come to their senses out of the snare of the devil and out of the doctrines of demons, by which you take their souls captive, and may do penance for their offenses by confessing the Lord Jesus Christ, lest with the devil himself they be plunged into the depth of hell. Antiochus said: Your Christ, when He wished to teach these superstitious and empty things, was seized by His own nation and perished, fastened to the gibbet of the cross. To this blessed Agapitus answered: Be silent, devil, and do not bring this blasphemy to my ears, since the death which He bore for us is our life, and by the wood of the cross He shut out the death which man, deceived by the devil, had gained for himself: for what you think reproaches was the redemption of the world, not the penalty of sin. Antiochus said: Whatever you heap up with blaspheming mouth, the sharpest punishments shall avenge. Only say, before you come to the torments: Where are the treasures which, having sold your own patrimony, you brought hither? St. Agapitus answered: The wealth of my patrimony, which you demand of me with burning mind, is laid up and kept in the treasury of my Christ, where thieves do not draw near nor steal.
[6] Antiochus said: I see indeed that your years have not yet come to ripe age, being invited to sacrifice, and therefore you argumentatively maintain these fabulous and useless inventions; but recall your mind to counsel, and provide for what shall profit you. St. Agapitus answered: Provide for yourself, wretched man, who know not that there is another life, and rejoice only in a present and passing happiness, which begins in sorrow and ends in sorrow, and which is followed by eternal torments never to be ended: for the counsel of my heart stands founded from the cradle in the true wisdom, which is Christ, so that it can be shaken by no assault of the malignant spirits. And therefore I do not fear your torturers, because the more they are stirred up against me, the more, being overcome by the power of my God, they vanish away. Antiochus said: It is long now that I have patiently borne your blaspheming madness. Wherefore I warn you to choose one of two things, whichever you shall see to be more expedient for you. Either show us the treasures which we have learned to be hidden with you, and depart free; or sacrifice to the immortal gods, that you may enjoy with us the course of a quiet life, and may deserve to be reckoned among the friends of the king. Crying out at this, blessed Agapitus said with undaunted mind: Foolish and senseless man, the treasures which you demand of me with wicked covetousness have once for all been laid up in the treasury of Christ: to whom always within my breast I offer the sacrifice of praise, and cease not to render worthy vows. But you and your gods shall be condemned to everlasting fires. Yet hear me, the servant of God, and recall your mind to my counsel, and do penance for the blood of the Saints which you have shed, that you may escape the eternal damnation with which all the wicked are to be punished.
[7] torments, Then the king in indignation ordered his officers to beat him with leaded scourges f and with scorpions g, and to cry out over him with a herald's voice: Sacrifice to the gods, before whom every human dignity bows its neck. But St. Agapitus, as he was being beaten, prayed to the Lord and said: I give thee thanks, O Lord, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, who affordest me help amid torments; I ask that, aided by the succor of thy mercy, my faith may not fail, and that of those who stand by me some may deserve to share with me the reward of martyrdom. In that same hour more than five hundred men, turning to God, confessed the Lord Jesus Christ; who at once in the same place received sentence of death, and with the palm of martyrdom passed to the starry realms. Then king Antiochus orders the holy Martyr of God to be shut in a horrible prison, and to be comforted by the company of no man, that, wasted by long fasting, he might perish of bodily hunger. But upon him to whom the earthly light had been denied a most welcome light was sent from heaven, and the whole dungeon of the prison shone. And a certain youth of comely countenance, whom a flaming aspect made bright, standing by him, strengthened him and said: Act manfully, Agapitus: for you shall endure many afflictions for my name; but fear not, for aided by the divine power you shall overcome all torments. And having said this, he vanished from his eyes. Then the soldiers who guarded the prison, seeing so great a brightness about the martyr of Christ, struck with fear, confessed the Lord Jesus Christ, saying: Truly great is the God of the Christians, who affords such help to His servants amid torments.
[8] blandishments, Hearing this, king Antiochus ordered Agapitus, the holy one of God, to be brought, and said to him: What have you determined concerning your safety, Agapitus? St. Agapitus answered: My safety is Christ. Antiochus said: Lay aside your stubbornness, and adore the living gods, whom their divinity has shown to be true gods. St. Agapitus said: Those whom you say are true gods are idols without life and without sense, who never could either speak or feel, or move themselves in any way from their place: on what ground you can call these gods, I know not. For your own writings assert that they were men, defiled with the most monstrous crimes, and record that they were murderers and devourers of their own sons h. If you shall wish to have such gods, you shall be condemned with them to eternal and unfailing punishments, where no end shall meet you.
[9] Then there came forward one who at that time held the prefecture, and bravely despises threats. and said to the king: Most unconquered king, why do you not punish this stubborn blasphemer of the gods, who has promised you eternal torments? The king, looking upon blessed Agapitus with angry face and savage gaze, said to him: Agapitus, do not trust in the magic arts with which the Christians have steeped you, by which you think to overcome torments; but deny that Christ is God, that you may be able with us not to lose the joys of life. For, by the gods, I will make you to be slain with divers torments as an example to all the living. St. Agapitus answered: As your momentary power has nothing lasting, so also your threats are brought to nothing; do what you are about to do. Then he ordered him to be stripped and beaten with rods i: then he had him stretched out tightly upon a wooden frame and his whole body torn with iron combs k, the executioners crying: Sacrifice to the gods. But blessed Agapitus, while he was in torments, prayed, saying: Be thou my helper, O Lord, and forsake me not in the hands of my enemies, O my God.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The tyrant's various attempts to seduce the holy Martyr, and the latter's several replies.
The tyrant tries to lead St. Agapitus astray Meanwhile Antiochus orders a tribunal to be prepared for him in the forum of the city, and St. Agapitus to be brought there. And he said to him: Do you sacrifice to the gods, or do you still remain in your madness? St. Agapitus answered: I always offer an immaculate sacrifice to my God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave me body and soul: for the madness of your head does not allow you to acknowledge your Creator, you who worship idols deaf and dumb, and say to a stone, "Thou hast begotten me." Antiochus, seeing himself insulted, with exceeding fury commanded the holy Martyr of God to be led to the temple of Apollo, and ordered that, if he did not burn offerings pleasing to the god, they should torture him with the sharpest punishments. But as the most blessed athlete of Christ Agapitus was being led, he said: I do not sacrifice to demons, because it is written: All the gods of the gentiles are demons, but the Lord made the heavens. And again: Let all be confounded that adore graven things, and
that glory in their idols. Hearing this, those who were leading St. Agapitus beat his throat with stones, and, tearing his whole body with iron combs, brought him back before the tribunal of king Antiochus.
[11] to frighten him from the profession of the Christian faith, But the king, looking upon blessed Agapitus, said to him: Agapitus, why do you subvert all the people, and do not fear to stir them up with seditious superstitions, acting against the decrees of princes? St. Agapitus answered: From the time you began to speak there has been no word which did not convict you of being a fool and guilty of falsehood, barking to no purpose. For the Christian religion has always abhorred sedition, and preaches that the concord of peace be kept uncorrupted by all: for sedition has always risen from the unskilled, and walks unceasingly with the quarrelsome and those given over to furies. Antiochus said to his officers a: Remove him to the rack, and tear his whole body with claws. And when this had been done, a most savage demon entered into the king and began to torment him a very long while, so that he was thought to be dying. Then, recovering his breath, he betook himself again to the palace, ordering the examiners to bring the martyr of Christ his God before his sight; and when the king had looked upon him, he said to him: Have you seen how the gods are angry with me on account of your blasphemy? St. Agapitus answered: There is no fellowship of Christ with Belial, of light with darkness; and therefore no injury of demons can hurt the servants of God, unless they be entangled in the stains of vices. But they exercise their power over those who know not God the Creator, and render their service to dumb and deaf images. And hence it is that they gain their souls by voluptuous winnings. But after the demons have gained their souls, they have power to send various infirmities upon their bodies, as they have hitherto held mastery over you, and shall hold it forever. But take care for yourself, wretched man, while there is time to repent, lest you then begin to will when you can no longer. Now assuredly is the time of sowing; he who now does not bring forth fruits worthy of penance shall reap, in that life which succeeds this life, mourning and groaning with grief and sadness, which shall never receive an end.
[12] Antiochus said: From the time when your vain and useless religion arose to spread a new sect, and to compel him to the worship of the gods which has made the sacred ceremonies of the gods to be held in contempt, from that time the Roman empire is consumed by divers disasters, and the condition of the commonwealth is lessened. St. Agapitus answered: It is not true; for if you review the histories of the ancients, you will find there that in one day, while incense was being laid on the altar of Olympian Jove, more than five hundred young men fell to the earth and perished. And, as the history of Trogus Pompeius b relates, three hundred men, while paying vain vows to Mars, breathed out their spirit in one hour from the breath of a serpent. But from the time when the Christian religion began to worship the true God and to venerate His ordinances, the peace of Christ resounds through the whole world, and the race of men, which for so many thousands of years had been exiled from the seat of paradise, is restored in the heavenly country. But if your momentary power cares to hear what the cause is that makes you persecute the Christians with obstinate mind, I will set it forth in few words.
[13] Antiochus said: Say what you know. St. Agapitus answered: with divers petty arguments, From the time when the divine compassion of God deigned to visit from heaven, through His only-begotten Son, the lost race of men, at once the devil through his satellites stirred up sedition against His elect, lest those whom the devil held guilty through fault he should lose through pardon, when they had received the preaching of the name of Christ. For as a violent wind moves the sea, and its waves swell, so also does the devil stir up persecution through his ministers against the Saints of God, lest believing peoples be saved through their preaching or through their examples. And that the Saints might not fear this, the Lord foretold it beforehand through His prophets; whence also it is sung in the psalm: The Lord hath reigned, let the peoples be angry. And another seer sings: Thou hast sent thy horses into the sea, troubling many waters; that is, when Christ shall send holy preachers to announce to you the kingdom of God, you are angry and rage, unwilling to receive their teaching, so that the devil may have wherewith to drag you, guilty, down with him to hell, to burn forever.
[14] Antiochus said: In whatever manner your Christ foretold these things as to come, which the Saint wisely refutes, you nevertheless, and your race, shall always be punished, or driven out from your own homes — you through whom every attempt at scandal has grown up — that princes and all the people may be able to enjoy a perpetual and tranquil peace of rest. To this St. Agapitus said: When those who have a fever become frenzied, it is not the physician's fault, but the sick man's failing. Antiochus said: To whose likeness have you set forth this, stubborn fellow? St. Agapitus answered: I set forth this argument against your superfluous and empty glory, you who neither receive the venerable name of Christ nor acquiesce in the admonitions of His Saints. For it is absurd to lay a fault upon Christ the Lord, that He came to the help of an ailing world; but rather is your sickness, so to speak, to be lamented, who, that you may not receive health, do injury to the physician himself.
[15] And so the whole people were marveling at the teaching of blessed Agapitus, seeing that the wisdom of God was in him. Whence also a confused cry of the people resounded. Some called out that he was a magician and a seducer; and he converts certain heathen, others professed him just and holy: and it came to pass that many of them, confessing the Lord Jesus Christ to be the true God, were baptized. While these things were doing, the king's heart was afraid, and, fearing lest the people should slip away from him (for the greatest part believed in Jesus on account of the teaching of blessed Agapitus), he handed him over to a certain prefect named Amas c. And he, feigning an expedition, withdrew for a time into the parts of Liguria, ordering him that, if he would not sacrifice to the idols, they should report him dead amid the sharpest torments. Having received this power over the Martyr of Christ, the prefect (for he had long been thirsting for his death), sitting on the tribunal, orders him to be brought before him, and addressed him thus: Say, pestilent fellow of a mad head, how long will you persist in torments and not sacrifice to the immortal gods, that you may be seen to obey the commands of princes? St. Agapitus answered: Tell me, foolish man appointed to death, why do you not fear to incur the wrath of the eternal Judge, you who command me to do wicked things against the law of my God? Then the aforesaid man, driven by the goads of his fury, ordered him to be shut in prison, and commanded that no one should dare to approach him, but that he should fail through want of food.
[16] the tyrant's threats being despised, But after some days the prefect Amas ordered the most valiant Athlete of Christ to be brought out of prison, and said to him: Tell me, Agapitus, since you have not yet come to the full age of men, whence is there in you so strong a speech of wisdom, so that all the people marvel and are amazed at the prudence of your answer? St. Agapitus answered: By a divine oracle indeed we are forbidden to cast pearls before swine and to give what is holy to dogs; yet because the time demands that the working of Christ should shine in His disciples, I will answer your inquiries. The prefect said: Speak. St. Agapitus answered: Christ the Lord our God, sending His disciples, whom He chose before the foundation of the world, to instruct the hearts of the faithful who should believe in His name, before He was lifted up to His Father in heaven, foretold them that they should suffer many afflictions in the world for the faith of His name, and should be led before kings and governors in testimony for His sake. He said to them also: "When you shall stand before kings and governors, take no thought how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given you from God in that hour what you ought to speak." And again: "For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you." But after His ascension to the Father in heaven, sending upon them the promised Holy Spirit, He filled their hearts with unspeakable wisdom, by which they taught all nations to believe in God the unbegotten Father, and in His only-begotten Son, and in the Holy Spirit proceeding inseparably from the Father and the Son; the teaching of which wisdom is poured out even to this day upon those who have deserved to be made sons of adoption. And when these have suffered persecution for His name, it shall be given them from God what they shall speak in their defense. The prefect said: This has been heard among us; but it can hardly be believed; and therefore you will act more wisely if you yield to our admonitions, that you may be able to escape the horrible torments which await you. For all these things which you have brought by long circuit of meditation to our tribunals, that you may be able to flee the punishments prepared, will profit you nothing, if you do not offer sacrifices to the most powerful gods. St. Agapitus answered: I worship my God, and Him alone I serve, as the divine authority has ordained. For deaf and dumb idols without sense, which you command me to adore, can confer nothing useful either on themselves or on their worshipers.
[17] Hearing this, the most impious Amas ordered abundant coals to be strewn upon his head. and the torments nobly borne. Straightway therefore, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the air was stirred, and a violent wind arose which caught up the fire and burned not a few of those who were tending it, so mightily that their bodies seemed almost consumed to ashes; but the holy one of God it touched in nothing at all, nor troubled him in any wise. And the prefect, seeing what had been done, said to his men: What is this that I see? St. Agapitus answered: If you consider, most wicked man, behold, I am already avenged upon your officers. Then Amas the prefect, kindled with exceeding rages, had him stripped, and ordered five sets of three men that, after being beaten with cudgels, he should be hung up feet upward above a thick smoke.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
The wondrous conversion of Attalus the cornicularius to the Christian faith, and the last punishment of St. Agapitus after various torments had proved vain.
A certain Attalus, a cornicularius, Thereafter, when some days had passed, and the holy martyr was now thought to be dead, Attalus a the cornicularius b was sent to see what had come to pass concerning the Man of God, Agapitus. And coming, he found him standing with hands raised to heaven and singing thus: Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Him flee from before His face; as smoke vanisheth, let them vanish away; as wax melteth before the fire, so let sinners perish from
the face of God, and let the just feast. But I shall not die, but live, and shall declare the works of the Lord. For an angel of the Lord had come down to him, who broke the bonds of his feet, and, having strengthened him, departed. And Attalus the cornicularius, returning, reported to the prefect what had been done. Then the prefect said to him: And what more shall we do about him? Attalus answered: Let the greatness of your glory permit me, and I will persuade [] him to obey your commands. The prefect said to him: If you fulfill your words with deeds, I will have you rewarded with great wealth, and you shall be made more glorious in the sight of princes than you have been.* And so they went to St. Agapitus, as had been ordered, and Attalus tried to persuade him with many words that, denying Christ, he should sacrifice to the demons. But he, persisting unmoved in the faith of Christ, gave no ear to his words, but scorned and derided their inventions.
[19] who had attempted to turn St. Agapitus from the Christian faith, Attalus therefore, persisting that he might fulfill his promises, uttered such admonitions to him: What reward will there be for you, that you so obstinately endure the torments inflicted upon you, and are dishonored with unworthy insults against your birth? Why do you lose the flower of your most delightful youth, and lay down a most sweet life by long torture? I too was once caught in this madness, and received the Sacrament of the Christian faith; but I chose it better not to lose the pleasantness of the present life than to be plunged by intolerable punishments into the shame of death. To this St. Agapitus answered: Depart from me, minister of the devil, kindler of deadly persuasion, depart from me. What would you not dare to attempt against the servant of God, you who did not fear to lay hand upon my Lord Jesus Christ Himself? Get thee behind me, Satan, with thy father the devil, who, confounded and terrified by my Lord, was plunged into the depth of hell.
[20] is converted to the same, Confounded at this answer, Attalus returned and reported to the prefect what had been said. Meanwhile Attalus confessed, saying: Truly I have seen wonders in the servant of God, which no tongue of men would suffice to tell. For the angels of God are with him, and protect him with impregnable arms. Therefore accursed of the Lord are all who do not believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God, whom His boy Agapitus preaches. The prefect therefore, dismayed in mind, said to him: As I see, you have been seduced. What did you see lacking to you, that you should forsake the service of the most unconquered gods and choose the doctrine of a man about to die, who is to be punished among the condemned? Attalus, understanding after this that the prefect wished to send an accusation about him to king Antiochus, went away and departed from him, and followed him no more c.
[21] and the holy Martyr, amid torments Meanwhile the prefect Amas had St. Agapitus seized, and had his whole body drenched with boiling water, the officers crying over him: Sacrifice to the gods. But Agapitus, the holy one of God, cried out, saying: I adore the true God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who affords me help from heaven; through whom I do not feel the torments. Yet it is fitting you should know this, wretched man, that the end of your life has hastened on, and you shall be dragged with the devil down to hell. The sentence had not yet gone forth from the holy Man's mouth, and by the just judgment of God vengeance forthwith followed: for suddenly, falling half-dead from his chair, not long after he breathed out the spirit of life.
[22] and remaining unhurt among the lions, On hearing which, king Antiochus commanded St. Agapitus to be brought back to Praeneste to the temple of Jove, that they might compel him to offer incense to the gods. And since he would not obey his orders, they led him into the amphitheater amid a great concourse of the people, and let loose upon him two most savage lions, whose eyes were flaming and whose aspect terrible. And when these had reached the middle of the arena, they cast themselves at the feet of blessed Agapitus, licking his footsteps with all gentleness, and lay so long before his feet, rolling themselves, until the holy Man commanded them to go away to their dens. Seeing which, the people cried out, saying: There is no other God in heaven and on earth save Him whom the servant of God Agapitus preaches. To whom St. Agapitus said: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that your souls may be saved, and do not consent to the doctrines of demons: for the fashion of this world passeth away with all things that are seen in it.
[23] is at last beheaded. Antiochus therefore, seeing the constancy of the holy Man, that he could more easily be killed than conquered, dictated sentence, saying: Let Agapitus, blasphemer of the gods and acting against the decrees of princes, be punished in the head with the sword. Then the officers who had been sent came forward and took St. Agapitus from the amphitheater, and led him away to be afflicted with divers punishments and to be punished in the head. And when the executioners had come to the place where the Man of God was to be beheaded, they set him between two columns not far from the city of Praeneste. And having bent his knees, the Martyr of Christ prayed: O God, receive me. His prayer being ended, the headsman came upon him, and with one stroke of the blow struck off his head. And the Christians, coming by night with hymns and praises, gathered up his body and with due honor laid it in a new sarcophagus one mile from the city, where his benefits abound to the present day, through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to all who ask them out of a pure heart and unfeigned faith. Now the most blessed Agapitus suffered on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of September, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning with God the Father and the Holy Spirit through the boundless ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
that is, suadebo* I shall persuade
OTHER ACTS
by an anonymous author
From a Manuscript of the monastery of Acey in Burgundy, a transcript of which we received from our Chifflet.
Agapitus, M., at Praeneste in Italy (St.)
By an anonymous author.
Under the emperor Aurelian At that time, when the most impious emperor Aurelian was carrying on a most savage persecution against the Christians throughout the whole Roman empire a, a certain governor named Antiochus b exercised the prefectorial power at Rome, worse in all things than his master. Now there was in the same [c] city a venerable boy named Agapitus, fearing God: he renounced all that had come to him by hereditary right from his parents, and offered himself wholly to God as a holocaust. And as he was daily in the doctrine of Christ and did not cease from it, he said to the man of God named Porphyrius: By your crown, and by these things in which we seem to be what we are, soldiers of Christ, I beg that we do not hide ourselves from the tyrant's presence, but rather offer ourselves of our own accord d, and say: Pagan governor, why do you seek the disciples of Christ, and why do you wish to make them your adversaries? For the blessed apostle Paul said: If thine enemy hunger, feed him; and if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. But this saying e was reported to the governor by a certain sacrilegious pagan. Then the governor ordered Agapitus, who had spoken this, to be brought forward; and he said to him: I see that you are exceedingly frantic and full of words, so that before you are questioned you seem to yourself to pass your own sentence. Agapitus answered: I am not frantic, but well in my senses, and I place my hope in almighty God; because He Himself says: Fear not them that kill the body; but to the soul they can do nothing. To this the governor Antiochus said to him: Whose son are you? Or from what family have you sprung? Or what god do you worship? The excellent boy answered: I am truly a Christian, sprung of a noble family, and I learned law in the forum: then my parents delivered me to a monastery f, and there I was instructed in the truth of Christ: I worship one God, and Him alone I serve, who created me: therefore you, who are an enemy of God, if you desire to say anything against the name of the Christian law, I am ready to answer you.
[2] a certain Antiochus, prefect of the City The governor said: I will not speak much with you now, because I see that you are a noble boy, and I grieve for your youth: but I say to you, Agapitus, you must obey what I advise. Come forward therefore and sacrifice to the great god, Jove most unconquered, lest I make you, a Christian boy as it were, and born of a noble family, to perish by divers punishments. I know you have said: I do not fear torments; therefore come forward and sacrifice, lest you fall into death. For we marvel why, being under fifteen years of age, you are ready to die by the horrible slaughter of the Christians. Agapitus answered: My judge is Christ, who knows the hearts of all; He is able to snatch me from the punishments which you threaten. Therefore, son of the devil, carry out what you threaten; for in no way will you be able to tear me from the fellowship of the Christian people: I worship Christ as God, and I desire to be His sacrifice. Antiochus said: I wish you to tell me, Agapitus, whence you have this wisdom. Agapitus answered: Christ, the wisdom of God the Father, is with me, and He governs my words. Then the governor ordered him to be beaten mightily with raw sinews. The venerable boy answered him: Insane tyrant, as it seems to me, I am not beaten but refreshed: for as boys beat the air with their hands, so am I mocked by your officers. Then the governor Antiochus handed him over to a certain tribune, saying: Unless Agapitus sacrifices today, put him to death with divers punishments. Amid this, the minister of the devil began to cry out before his soldiers, saying: O Jove, O Mercury! To what are we giving our leisure? And what shall we do, that Agapitus, a boy of fifteen years, should say, "I do not feel it when your soldiers torture me"? And after this he said to his men: Take away the magician, and cast him into prison; and let no one come to him for four days; let neither water nor any food be given him, until he perishes there.
[3] But Attalus the cornicularius said to the governor:
Why do you burden yourself with anxiety? to St. Agapitus, a youth of fifteen years, I will go to him and make him sacrifice. Then the governor said to him: By the state of this city and by the power of great Jove, and by the power of our lords the most unconquered princes, I swear that if you persuade him, I will make you to be what I am. At this Attalus went to Agapitus in the prison, and said to him: Believe me, Agapitus, and withdraw from your folly, and sacrifice to the gods. And what does it profit you to die in torments, and to lose the flower of your most delightful youth? I too was a Christian, just as you are; but I returned and sacrificed to the gods, and now I am a magistrate and a lord, as you see. The glorious Agapitus, angered at this, answered: You have bought the things of hell, and have lost the things of heaven; and although you see me set below the age of boyhood, yet you shall never make me come into your fellowship. Depart from me, son of the devil, execrable apostate; go, adore the deaf and dumb idols which were made by men: but I without ceasing adore the true and living God, who will cast you and your father Satan into everlasting fire. Report therefore to the governor, and know that I can assuredly by no means be separated from the faith of the holy and undivided Trinity, neither by threats nor by false promises. Attalus the cornicularius said: You may say all things to me, Agapitus; for I bear with you patiently, desiring to bring back your mind to the worship of the gods. And while he was saying this, the governor sent and ordered Agapitus to be brought out of prison. And as he was being led, the voice of a herald was sent before him, saying: Agapitus, who blasphemes the gods, must be tortured with new and exquisite torments.
[4] And so when the Athlete of God had come before the governor, he said to him: who, despising his threats and blandishments, Agapitus, have you thought to be our friend? The most valiant contender answered: Do not tempt the servant of Jesus Christ, tyrant, lest while you wish to tempt, you be tempted by your father the devil. Angered at this, the governor said to his officers: Bring burning coals, and lay them upon his head. And they, fulfilling the order, did as had been commanded them. But when the coals had begun to burn upon the Saint's head, lifting up his eyes to heaven he said: Glory be to thee, O God, who reignest world without end, who hast made me to be tried like gold in the furnace. And straightway after this he began to sing, saying thus: Because of my innocence thou hast received me, and hast confirmed thy Servant in thy sight forever. Again the governor ordered the holy Martyr to be beaten with scourges. But St. Agapitus said: First I saw the flame, and was tortured; then I am beaten with scourges. Learn, wretched man, the power of Christ, and you will find me ready to bear all torments: for your officers have afforded me refreshment rather than torment. At this the insane governor commanded a most foul smoke to be made, and the holy Martyr to be hung up naked, head downward; and he said to him: Your wisdom and your vanity shall be overcome in smoke. And the sets of four who beat him said to him: Do not do injury to the governor, and do not blaspheme the gods. And the officers left him hanging on the gibbet. Then Antiochus ordered that no one should come to him, until it should be reported that his body had been devoured by beasts and birds.
[5] But the aforesaid Attalus after four days went to where the Saint had been hung up, had constantly confessed Christ, wishing to tell the governor whether he were still alive; and he found him walking above the smoke in a white garment, and singing thus: I shall not die, but live, and shall declare the works of the Lord. I have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought me out, O God, into refreshment. For an angel of the Lord had loosed him and had made him so whole as if he had received no wound. At this Attalus the cornicularius, astonished, reported to the governor what he had seen accomplished concerning the kindly Martyr. Then the governor, troubled with exceeding fury, said: What shall we do about him? Attalus said: I believe that the God of the Christians is great, and that there is no other God besides Him. The governor answered: As I see, you have been seduced: I shall truly tell the emperor that you have been seduced. Attalus answered: Most gladly do I desire to undergo the sentence of martyrdom, by which I hear that a holy and just man is tortured g. Now blessed Agapitus, hearing the confession of Attalus, straightway lifted his hands and eyes to heaven, and prayed the Lord Jesus Christ, saying: I give thee thanks, almighty God, who hast made Attalus, deceived by diabolical fraud and cut off from the fellowship of Christians, to return through my passion to our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant, most gentle God, that through the power of thy only Son I may be able to overcome the punishments of the enemy and to attain to everlasting joys.
[6] orders various torments to be inflicted, Hearing this, the governor was greatly angered, and rent his garments, saying: O immortal gods, why do you not show your powers against this sacrilegious man who blasphemes the gods and spurns the emperor's commands? Why do you not avenge your wrongs upon him? St. Agapitus said: Why, governor, are you so angry for the wrong done to your gods? Or do you not know that they are stones, and are laid down through the streets for the avoiding of the mud? Then the governor, moved with wrath, said: O little boy, by your age you have not tried such things. Whence have you this wisdom? Agapitus answered: My God, who knows the hearts of all, knows how I believe in Him with a pure heart, and to Him with all my strength I give thanks, the living and true God, who has deigned to bestow upon me this wisdom out of His riches. Antiochus said: Tell me, who is your God? Agapitus answered: Great is my God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three in persons and one in the essence of the Godhead. He is wonderful and unconquered in power, whom angels and archangels serve, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; to whom from earth to heaven sweet psalmody is raised; who shall bring you with all yours to nothing. Then the governor in anger said to his soldiers: Strip him, and pour hot boiling water upon his belly. And they, fulfilling the order, said to the blessed Martyr: Do not be so full of words like a boy, and do not do injury to the governor. Therefore after the soldiers had done such things, the man of God Agapitus said to them: What is this, brothers, that you have poured hot water upon my belly? For I do not feel hot water, but cold: because my Lord, for whose love I suffer these torments, has deigned to afford me refreshment. And after this he said to the governor: O unhappy man! believe at least by this, that your torments are nothing.
[7] amid which the holy Martyr remained unhurt, At this the minister of demons ordered his jaws to be struck, saying: Do you not know before whom you stand, and do you speak without discipline? The servant of God Agapitus answered: I now blush to look upon your sacrilegious face. The governor said: You speak truly; for I still permit you to live. Agapitus said: Hear, son of death: if you should exercise upon me all the torments that are on earth, I shall have a great patron and advocate, God in heaven, who will make me overcome the torments which you attempt to inflict. The governor said to him: O Agapitus, if I believe, shall I see your God? The venerable martyr answered: Be silent, profane man, from naming God; for your father the devil wished to tempt our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord said to him: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God; get thee behind me, Satan. So you also, minister of demons, shall not tempt the servant of God, lest you too be tempted by your father the devil. And when the most blessed Martyr had said this, the governor fell from his tribunal. Then his attendants gathered him up and laid him on a bed. Afterward the governor said to his soldiers: Run; for I am all on fire; help me: for our gods, whom we worship without cause, are nothing; but the God of Agapitus is great and eternal: and what I did unjustly to His boy, that I justly receive. And when the impious Antiochus had said this, he straightway expired.
[8] But his attendants, seeing what had happened to their governor, and, when he had been cast to the lions in vain reported it to the emperor. Then the emperor Aurelian commanded St. Agapitus to be cast to lions. And straightway his officers led the holy Martyr into the city of Praeneste h; and they made ready the amphitheater; and, the people of divers cities standing round about, they threw him to the lions. And when these had come to the holy Martyr, straightway, laying aside their fierceness, they cast themselves before him, licking his feet. And the people, seeing it, marveled, saying: Truly there is no other God save Him whom Agapitus the servant of God confesses. And when the people had said this, the Man of God said to them: Believe in God, dearest brothers, that your souls may be saved; for all these things which you behold in the world are passing. Truly therefore you shall be blessed, if you believe in the living God.
[9] Then the ministers of the devil snatched St. Agapitus from the midst of the lions, and led him not far from the city, at last, by the emperor's order, his head is struck off. to put him to death. And coming over against the city, in the place where the two columns are, his knee being bent in prayer, they there struck him with the sword on the XV day before the Kalends of September. Then the Christians came by night and took his body and buried him in a field, one mile from the city, in a new sarcophagus which they found there; saying that God had chosen him as a Martyr worthy of Himself, that through him blessing might be given in that place where the greatest superstition of the pagans was. And the pagan peoples, seeing the wonders which the Lord wrought through His servant Agapitus, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen i.
ANNOTATIONS.
c. These
things are referred to Rome, of which he had treated before; but in the preceding Acts they are said to have happened in the city of Praeneste, as was observed in number 6 of the Preliminary Commentary.