ON ST. RUFINUS, CONFESSOR,
AT MANTUA IN ITALY.
A notice concerning his cult.
Rufinus, confessor, at Mantua in Italy (St.)
J. B. S.
Among the editors of Usuard, Belinus of Padua was the first to add this St. Rufinus or Ruffinus in these words: At the city of Mantua, of St. Ruffinus, confessor; whom Molanus, Maurolyco, Galesinius, and Ferrarius followed. But what here is worth all the rest, we have him marked in the Roman Martyrology, so that no doubt can remain concerning his received cult. But as undoubted as that is, so unknown is everything pertaining to him, so that even Ferrarius, that most diligent unearther of the Saints of Italy, was compelled candidly to confess that he could find no Acts, and, although, he says, he is set down in the Roman Martyrology and in others, yet he is not in the Tables of the church of Mantua — in which, published in the year 1626, only three festivals are enumerated, namely of the Finding of the Blood of Christ, of St. Anselm, and of St. Celestine the Pope.
In vain therefore will you ask of what country he was, or of what condition or age, unless credit be given to Ferrarius in the very brief eulogy which he composed of him, from which you will at least understand that he was a priest, and was buried, I suppose, in his own church near Mantua, and honored from time immemorial. Here are the few words: Rufinus the confessor is honored near Mantua in his own church: and they hold him in veneration at Ferrara also, where his relics are. They say that his image, painted on the wall in the church dedicated to him near Mantua, in the habit
of a priest, is to be seen. From which it is understood that he was a presbyter.
ON SS. EUTYCHIANUS THE SOLDIER AND STRATEGIUS, MARTYRS.
Their memory in the Greek calendars.
Eutychianus, soldier, Martyr (St.)
Strategius, Martyr (St.)
BY J. P.
Our transcript from the Menaeon of Chifflet marks on this day the names Εὐτυχιανοῦ καὶ Στρατηγίου, of Eutychianus and Strategius. But the Menology of Sirleto has it thus: On the same day, the commemoration of the holy martyrs Eutychianus the soldier and Strategius, who for the confession of the Christian faith endured fire. The great Menaea published in print, after a similar announcement, subjoin these verses concerning St. Strategius, in which there is an allusion to his Greek name and to his martyrdom:
Ὁ Στρατήγιος Χριστὸν ὡς ὅπλον φέρων Κατεστρατήγει καὶ πυρᾶς διῃρμένης.
These verses I render thus in the Latin tongue:
While the armor of Christ covers Strategius, He overcomes even the fires of the raised pyre.
His Acts, the time of his life and of his martyrdom, are hidden from us.