ON ST. JULIUS THE SENATOR, MARTYR,
AT ROME.
In the year 192.
A collection concerning his cultus, his Acts, and his relics.
Julius the senator, M., at Rome (St.)
BHL Number: 4559
BY J. B. S.
Eulogies of the Saint Concerning this holy Julius, a Roman senator, the most ancient memorial in the calendars is that which the Little Roman Martyrology supplied to Ado, announcing him upon this day most briefly thus: At Rome, of Julius, senator and martyr. Ado, as we have already noted in our Usuard, drew a good deal more from the Acts, and Bede of Plantin's edition has nearly the same. Here is Ado's own eulogy: At Rome, the birthday of blessed Julius, senator and martyr, under the emperor Commodus, the judge being Vitellius. Him the blessed martyrs Eusebius, Vincent, Peregrinus, and Pontianus instructed; and by their hands, distributing also his goods to the poor, he received the grace of Baptism from the blessed priest Rufinus. Hearing this, Commodus in anger ordered him to be seized and handed over to a certain Vitellius, master of the foot soldiers, that he might inquire into all his goods and drive him to sacrifice. He cast him into prison, and after three days had him presented to himself bound in chains; and having heard him, he commanded him to be beaten with clubs until he should give up the spirit. His body the blessed Eusebius, Pontianus, Peregrinus, and Innocentius gathered up by night, and buried it in the cemetery of Calepodius, on the XIV Kalends of September.
[2] Much shorter is Usuard's announcement, of this sort: At Rome, from whose Acts they were taken: of St. Julius, senator and martyr, who, by order of the emperor Commodus, was beaten with clubs until he gave up the spirit; so that it is sufficiently plain that the text of the present Roman Martyrology was drawn not from him, but from Ado, or rather from the Acts themselves: At Rome, of St. Julius, senator and martyr, who, being handed over to the judge Vitellius and thrust by him into prison, was, by order of the emperor Commodus, beaten with clubs until he gave up the spirit: whose body was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way. One may consult Baronius's own annotation on the senatorial dignity; namely, that it was impossible for a senator, once he had believed in Christ, to remain any longer in the senate, on account of the sacrifices that had to be offered to the gods on so many occasions. But these matters look elsewhere rather than to our holy Julius.
[3] Now all the eulogies given proceed from the same source, namely from the Acts, which he separated therefrom. which among others are mixed with the deeds of St. Eusebius and his companions, and were somewhat distinguished from them by Vincent of Beauvais — not in book 11, chapter 119, as Baronius will have it, but in book 10, chapter 120: where, although they are somewhat abridged, they are nevertheless not judged sufficiently genuine, as Tillemont contends in volume 3, page 59, with whom we shall shortly deal. Tamayo reckoned this same Saint among his Spaniards, with a eulogy taken from Ferrarius, from which labor he might well have abstained; but his boldness is very well known in claiming all the Saints for Spain, whose relics he pretended to have been translated into those parts. Thus, then, he announces him on this day: At Plasencia in Vertonia in Spain, the deposition of St. Julius, a Roman senator, who under the prefect Vitellius, in the reign of Commodus, was crowned with martyrdom and fell by the repeated torments of clubs. Whose sacred remains, translated from Rome by the concession of Urban VIII, Supreme Pontiff, are kept there in the sacristy. Let it be enough to have reported these things on the credit of this martyrologist. We return to the Acts, which must first be presented here from Vincent of Beauvais:
[4] The legend And so a certain senator Julius, hearing salutary admonitions of this kind, brought them (namely Eusebius and those named above) into his house; and hearing their preaching with earnest attention, he believed, and distributed his various goods by their hands. Accordingly, having sent for a certain priest Rufinus, he received Baptism with all his household; and he himself began publicly to confess Christ, and with a longing spirit to desire death for Him. When Caesar had heard this, stirred by the gall of bitterness, he ordered him to be brought back to himself, and began to address him thus: "Julius, how have you become so mad as to abandon Jupiter and Hercules and follow I know not what empty madness?" To whom Julius manfully replied, saying: "You shall perish together with your gods, whom by an empty error and with rash mouth you falsely declare to be gods." And so Caesar, confounded both by these words and by others, sent for a certain man named Vitellius, master of the foot soldiers, savage in spirit, cruel in deed, and beset with every vice, and gave him this command, saying: "Search out diligently the goods of this sacrilegious man, and compel him to sacrifice to the most unconquered Hercules; and if he will not consent, do not prolong his life any further."
[5] of Vincent of Beauvais. Vitellius the vicar, undertaking this, had him confined in custody. After three days he ordered a tribunal to be prepared for him in the Tellus, and St. Julius to be brought before him bound in chains. Now he was naked in body, but wholly fortified in faith; and Vitellius addressed him thus: "Have you heard what the prince commanded? Lay aside now your obstinacy and adore the gods, by whom the whole Roman world has stood firm. For if you do not, you shall be punished and afflicted with divers penalties." To whom the Saint steadfastly replied: "O wretched and pitiable man, you shall perish together with your faithless prince." To this Vitellius said: "O Julius, in what do you trust, since you are already condemned?" Julius answered: "My confidence is eternal life, my hope is Christ, who will condemn you together with your prince to everlasting destruction." Hearing these things, Vitellius, goaded by the stings of anger, ordered him to be beaten with clubs. And while he was being beaten, giving up the spirit, he sought the heavenly places. His body Vitellius ordered to be thrown out before the amphitheatre. Hearing which, Eusebius, Vincent, Peregrinus, and Potentianus gathered up the body of the most holy Martyr of Christ and buried it in the cemetery of Calepodius on the XIV Kalends of September.
[6] These things from Vincent, in whom I confess that, besides the change of the name Pontianus to Potentianus, Tillemont, carping at these Acts, some other things occur which might displease the more severe critics. But I do not see why Tillemont rages so greatly against those things which are recorded of St. Julius's martyrdom, as though divers torments could not have been inflicted upon Christian senators as well as upon others, especially under the insane emperor Commodus. I admit indeed that it is true that no such savagery was used against the senator Apollonius, of whom our predecessors treated long ago on the XVIII of April; but here the prefect is described as most worthy of Commodus's insanity, namely as savage in spirit, cruel in deed, and beset with every vice, so that it may readily be granted that this monstrous Vitellius raged with clubs against St. Julius, a senator hateful to him.
[7] Certainly Tillemont might have remembered that ignominious torments were sometimes inflicted upon noble Christians. by the testimony of Eusebius, Without doubt he had at some time read what Eusebius of Caesarea, in Valesius's edition, book 8 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 6, set down concerning the persecution of Diocletian, in these words: That storm carried off glorious and illustrious martyrs of God, namely Dorotheus and the rest of the chamberlain servants; who, although they had been adorned by the emperors with the prerogative of the highest honor, and were loved by them no less than sons, nevertheless reckoned the reproaches endured for piety's sake, and the hardships and the various kinds of death devised against them, to be in truth of greater price than the glory and delights of this world. Of these, then, I shall relate here the end of one only, that from it the readers may conjecture what befell the rest.
[8] One of them was brought forward in the city mentioned above, in the presence of those emperors whom I have named; and by one or two examples and being ordered to sacrifice to the gods, when he obstinately refused, he was commanded to be stripped and raised on high, and to be cut to pieces with scourges, until at last, however unwilling, he should obey the orders. But when he, torn by torments of this kind, remained firm in the same resolve, his very bones being now laid bare, they poured vinegar mixed with salt upon the wasting members of his body. And when he endured these pains also, a gridiron and fire were next brought into the midst. And the remains of his body, like meats prepared for food, were roasted with fire; and this not all at once, but by little and little, lest indeed he should die by a swift end. Nor were the executioners, who had set him upon the pyre, permitted to let him go, unless he first, after so many torments, complied with the orders. But he, persevering always in the same resolve, breathed out his soul a victor in the very torments.
[9] is refuted, Such was the martyrdom of one of the emperor's chamberlains, truly worthy of his name: for he was called Peter. But the martyrdoms of the rest, in no way inferior, we shall here omit for the sake of brevity. It will suffice to have related only this, that Dorotheus and Gorgonius, together with several others who served in the palace, after contests of this kind, having their throats crushed with a noose, obtained the reward of the divine victory. Will Tillemont reject this testimony of Eusebius too, since from that narrative it is plain that noble courtiers were subjected to ignominious punishments? Add to these that at times savage governors or emperors had no regard at all for rank, as is clear from the testimony of Julius Capitolinus, who in Ruinart, in the Preface to the Genuine Acts of the Martyrs, page XLIX, asserts that under the emperor Maximinus some were set upon the cross
raised aloft, others shut up within animals newly killed, others thrown to wild beasts, others slain with clubs, without any distinction of rank. These things could be confirmed by more examples, if Tillemont's scruple deserved so much labor. It now remains to say something briefly concerning the relics of this holy Martyr.
[10] and the Saint's relics are briefly treated. Concerning the sacred deposit of the Saint himself, certain doubts assuredly arise. First of all, that which we have already heard Tamayo asserting — or rather divining — about the body translated into Spain. For even if we freely admit that the sacred relics of some St. Julius, whether the true one or one so named, were carried off into those parts, it by no means follows from this that our present St. Julius is to be understood. Doubtless Saints of the same name will be found in other places also, whom there is no need to seek out just now. I seem to remember, while I was devoting myself to theological studies at Rome, that under Innocent XII the body of some St. Julius was found with an inscription from which it was judged to be that of St. Julius the senator; and that this was deposited in the sacristy of the church of the Franciscan Fathers commonly called Ara Cœli, where I suppose it is still honored — whatever Piazza may have written in his Hemerologium, that it was believed at Rome in the year 1690 that the body rested at St. Pancras's, and that the relics, some of them I suppose, were kept in the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus. The most learned Marangoni, Canon of Anagni, Apostolic Protonotary, etc., will shortly supply more in the work he is preparing on the sacred Roman relics, where perhaps it will be set forth to which St. Julius belonged those remains which were found on the XXX of April in the year 1697.