ON SS. BONOSUS AND MAXIMILIANUS OR MAXIMIANUS, MARTYRS,
AT ANTIOCH IN SYRIA,
IN THE YEAR 363.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Bonosus, M., at Antioch in Syria (St.)
Maximilianus or Maximianus, M., at Antioch in Syria (St.)
BY G. C.
§ I. The immemorial cultus of these Saints, the occasion of their martyrdom, and the authentic credit of their Acts.
Ado, at the XXI day of August in his Martyrology, celebrates the yearly memory of these Martyrs thus: On this day those Martyrs are commemorated in the Martyrologies, On the same day, the birthday of the holy martyrs Bonosus and Maximianus, whose deeds are extant. Usuard transcribed Ado word for word, and today's Roman Martyrology in its similar announcement omits only the statement that their deeds are extant. Nay rather, the most eminent Baronius, in his notes on today's announcement of the Roman Martyrology, advises the following: Concerning these, Usuard, who also testifies that their Acts survive; but they now appear to have perished: for nowhere have we been able to find them. But the greatest thanks are owed to Thierry Ruinart, who in the last century happily dug out the genuine deeds of these Champions from a manuscript codex of the monastery of La Sauve-Majeure in the diocese of Bordeaux, and reported them in the year 1689 among the Acts of the First Martyrs, Sincere and Select, page 664 and following. Had not this precious treasure, sought in vain by others, been detected by the diligence of Ruinart, we should to this day, along with the most eminent Baronius and our predecessors, be ignorant of the illustrious deeds of these Martyrs, and of the time and place of their martyrdom. Certain Spanish pseudo-writers, of whom we shall treat afterwards, could also more easily have imposed upon us.
[2] although perhaps they underwent martyrdom on another day, Although from the Martyrologies reported the immemorial cultus of our Martyrs is sufficiently established, nevertheless some difficulty occurs concerning the day on which they are venerated or underwent martyrdom. Castellano in his universal Martyrology refers them to the XX day of September, doubtless following the title which in Ruinart, in the Paris edition of the year 1689, is thus prefixed to the Acts: The Passion of the holy Bonosus and Maximilianus, soldiers, of the number of the Herculiani seniores, under the emperor Julian and Julian his Count, on the day of the XII of the Kalends of October. But Ruinart himself reasons thus on this matter before the Acts: The Martyrologies of Usuard, Galesinius, and Baronius celebrate the memory of these Martyrs on the XXI day of August, where Maximilianus is called Maximianus, and their Acts are commended; which, hitherto unknown, we now for the first time bring forward from a manuscript codex of our monastery of blessed Mary of La Sauve-Majeure in the diocese of Bordeaux. Another day is preferred in the title of the Acts, the XII of the Kalends of October. But neither seems able to be assigned as the true day of their death: since Julian the Count had already fallen into his sickness when they were interrogated. But by that sickness, as we have seen at the Acts of St. Theodoritus, he suffered only after the XXII day of October, and he died at the beginning of the following year, namely 363, as Ammianus Marcellinus reports. Wherefore it would be better to bring back the death of these martyrs to the month of December. But this day, as also those things which everywhere appear to have been omitted in the Acts, we are unable to supply save from some manuscript codex. Whatever be the case with the true day of the martyrdom, we, following Ado and Usuard together with the Roman Martyrology, have placed these two holy Athletes on this XXI day of August.
[3] For the rest, from the reported title of the Acts it is plain that our Saints served in the legions of the Herculiani, because they refused to change the military standard, which had of old drawn their name from Maximian Herculius, a name which was afterwards imposed upon the most excellent troops of the army, as Sextus Aurelius Victor in the little work On the Cæsars testifies among us at page 578, and of whom Ammianus Marcellinus, a writer of the same age, makes mention in books 20 and 22 of the Deeds under the reign of Julian the Apostate. Not altogether rashly do I suspect that our Saints were endowed with some military dignity in these cohorts: for the prefect, Secundus by name, in the Acts to be published below at number 10 calls St. Bonosus lord, which honorific appellation does not seem to suit a common soldier. Nay, perhaps this Bonosus is the same as the one to whom the emperor Constantius, as master of the horse or otherwise of the soldiers, wrote a law concerning military service at Hierapolis in the month of May of the year 347, as may be seen in the Chronology of the Theodosian Code in Jacques Godefroy, page XLVII. Moreover it did not belong to common soldiers to change the labarum or military standard, which was demanded of these Saints; and concerning this sign of the standard we shall here premise a few things, that the Acts presently to be published may be more clearly understood.
[4] Eusebius of Cæsarea, in the Life of Constantine, book 1, chapter 28 and following, narrates at length whose figure, from Eusebius of Cæsarea, how the sign of the cross appeared in the sky to this emperor, as he had heard from Constantine himself on oath; from which history we excerpt the following as bearing on our matter: Then indeed the Christ of God appeared to him as he slept, with that sign which had been shown in the sky; and commanded that, a military standard being fashioned after the likeness of that which he had seen in the sky, he should use it in battles as a saving protection. He, rising at the very first dawn, set forth the whole secret to his friends. Then, having called together workers in gold and gems, sitting in the midst of them, he depicted for them in words the appearance of the sign, and ordered them to express its likeness in gold and precious stones; which we also remember to have seen several times. And it was of this kind. A rather long spear, covered with gold, has a transverse yard-arm after the manner of a cross: above, at the very summit of the spear, a crown was fixed, wrought together of gems and gold. On this was the sign of the saving appellation: namely two letters, which designated the name of Christ by its first characters, the letter P being crossed through the middle of itself. Which letters indeed the emperor was accustomed after this to wear also upon his helmet.
[5] Further, from the yard-arm, which is passed crosswise through the spear, there hung a certain veil; namely a purple web, covered with precious stones joined together and dazzling the eyes with the brilliance of their light, is here described, and, with much gold interwoven, presenting to beholders a certain inexplicable appearance of beauty. And this veil, fixed to the yard-arm, had its breadth equal to its length. But the straight spear itself, drawn out from its lowest part to a great length, in its upper part, beneath the very sign of the cross, at the very summit of the veil painted with various colors, bore aloft a golden image, painted as far as the breast, of the emperor beloved of God and of his children. With this saving sign, therefore, as with a bulwark against the opposing forces of any enemies whatsoever, the emperor always made use; and he ordered other standards fashioned after its likeness to be borne before all the armies.
[6] Baronius, in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 312, number 26, expressed this Eusebian description of the labarum in a figure, and upon which the name of Christ which we have ordered our engraver to imitate in this manner: You see here the name of Christ expressed by the initial Greek letters XP. That most eminent writer, in the same place at the preceding number, had noted another mystery in this monogram in these words: In this, moreover, he says, this also is to be observed: that with wondrous fitness by the same elements there are expressed at once the name of Christ and the sign of the cross, so that the cross is shown in Christ and Christ in the cross: for by X the cross is denoted, though set crosswise. Then he there sets forth another figure of that monogram, which is also found on an ancient coin of the emperor Constantine in Anselmo Banduri, among the Coins of the Roman Emperors, volume 2, page 213, and is explained at page 250.
[7] was inscribed in various ways, Certainly the Christians understood the name of Christ by the Greek letter X, as Julian the Apostate himself indicates in the Misopogon against the men of Antioch, in our Sirmond, part 2 of his Works, where at page 88 and following he brings in a Christian citizen of Antioch speaking thus, and at the same time hisses him off: "But," he says, "Chi and Kappa did the city no harm." What this riddle of your wisdom may be is hard to understand. We, however, having got hold of certain interpreters of yours, have learned that by these letters the beginnings of certain names are signified, and that by the one Christ is declared, by the other Constantius. Permit me therefore freely to say what I think. In one thing only did Constantius do you an injury: that, having made me Cæsar, he did not deprive me of life. For as to the rest, would that the gods might grant to you alone of all the Romans to experience many Constantiuses, or rather the rapacities of his friends: for to me indeed that man was a cousin and a friend; but after he preferred to be an enemy, and the gods most humanely decided our contest for us, I was a more faithful friend to him than he had hoped I should be before the enmities. Wherefore why do you suppose that I take his praises ill, who am angry with those who disparage him? But you love Christ and worship him as a tutelary deity in place of Zeus and the Daphnæan and Calliope, who unfolded your quibble. Or did the men of Emesa love Christ, who burned the sepulchres of the Galileans? Or did I ever offend the men of Emesa? For of you certainly I have offended very many and almost all — the senate, the rich, the people: for the greatest part of the people, nay the whole people, which follows the sect of impiety, is angry with me, because it sees me embracing the religion of the fathers and cleaving to it. From these words of the impious Apostate it is clear that the citizens of Antioch were at that time nearly all Christians, and that among them the name of Christ was designated by the Greek letter X, which chiefly bears upon our purpose.
[8] as in Baronius The aforesaid most eminent founder of the Ecclesiastical Annals, at the year cited above, number 26, sets forth another figure of the labarum or military standard, which he ordered to be delineated from an old coin, and to which he prefixed this admonition: For the rest, although in it one and the same form of the labarum was always preserved — namely that it should be a cross put together from an upright shaft and a transverse piece of wood, adorned with a veil hung in that manner — nevertheless in this the figure is found to have been varied, since the name of Christ was sometimes woven not at the top of the shaft, but into the veil itself, and inscribed in place of the image of the emperor and of his sons. Then he represents this coin, on one side of which is seen the head of the emperor Constantine bound with a diadem, and on which around the circuit these words are read: CONSTANTINUS MAX AVG. But the other side of the coin he expresses in this manner: The curious reader easily observes that here the monogram alone of the name of Christ is inscribed upon the veil, whereas in the other effigy of the labarum the emperor Constantine was depicted with his children, and the name of Christ was encircled with a crown near the summit of the shaft.
[9] Anselmo Banduri, among the Coins of the Roman Emperors, volume 2, page 242, represents a similar coin of the emperor Constantine, and Banduri, is shown from coins, and at page 273, illustrating it with notes, on that occasion rejects the extraordinary opinion of our Hardouin in these words: This coin, on account of the monogram of Christ on the labarum, is to be numbered among the rarer ones, nor does it exist in Mediobarbus. But the monogram of Christ on the labarum was scarcely to be noted, had not Hardouin written that this Constantine Augustus, not yet emperor (what that may be, see in him) was a heathen: for when he denied that the cross which is seen on other coins was a cross, but saw in it nothing beyond a mere transverse drawing of a double line by the engraver's fancy, and affirmed that the only indication of Christianity in that age was the monogram of Christ,
it seemed worth the trouble to set against him coins marked with this monogram, on which Constantine is called AUGUSTUS MAX. But see what he has reported: of two coins of this kind, one, a gold one inscribed VICTORIA CONSTANTINI AVG., he denies to display the monogram of Christ, although it be fashioned in that manner in which it was described by Eusebius; but on the other he contends that the same monogram attests rather the faith of the army than of the Prince himself. To report these things is to refute them. Truly we marvel that these matters were called into doubt by our Hardouin, since they are proved from other coins in Banduri, and are most of all confirmed from a coin of the same emperor Constantine, inscribed SPES PUBLICA, which Baronius reports in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 325, number 206, and whose explanation has its foundation in the narration of Eusebius of Cæsarea.
[10] This military token of the Christian faith, which after the conversion of Constantine the Great had begun to be borne before the Roman cohorts, the impious apostate Julian wished to change, as St. Gregory Nazianzen, his contemporary, testifies in the third Oration against the same Julian, in our edition, volume 1 of his Works, page 75, in these words: and is confirmed from ancient writers. Nay, now his audacity is carried even against that great standard which goes magnificently before with the cross, and, borne aloft on high, leads the army, having power to loose hardships, and thence drawing its name among the Latins, and holding, so to speak, the primacy over all the other standards. Sozomen, a writer nearly contemporary with Constantine, in his Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 17, sets forth that design of the Apostate briefly and clearly, when he writes thus there concerning the emperor Julian: He devised every means by which he might allure his subjects, and especially the soldiers, to the religion of the heathen, partly by himself, partly through the governors. Finally, that by all means he might accustom them to the superstition of the heathen, he determined to change back into its former shape that most noble standard of the Roman armies, which Constantine, at God's command, as we have related above, had converted into the form of a cross. Let these things said suffice concerning the Christian standards of the Roman soldiers, such a standard of their own cohort as our Saints wished to retain, which will gave them occasion for undergoing martyrdom. Now we proceed to prove briefly the authentic credit of the Acts.
[11] Severe critics hold the Acts of these Martyrs Thierry Ruinart, a learned man and by no means credulous, passes the following judgment on the Acts of these Martyrs, which he had found in the monastery of La Sauve-Majeure, in the Work praised above at page 663: Although in the Acts of the holy Bonosus and Maximilianus some passages occur corrupted, perhaps by the error of the scribes, nevertheless they have seemed to us worthy to be placed among the sincere monuments of antiquity: for if you except the miracles, which in these are somewhat more frequent than in others commonly held, there is nothing in them which does not savor of antiquity, nothing which is not consonant with the most approved authors contemporary with Julian; although many and most singular things are narrated in them, which indeed you will nowhere find in fabricated Acts. Such are the things he reports concerning Secundus the prefect, concerning Hormisdas the Persian prince, concerning the baptism of Constantine the Great, concerning Meletius the bishop, concerning the wife and death of Julian the Count, and other things of that sort, which are never wont to be reported by fabricators, at least not without error.
[12] as sincere and genuine. Nor does it avail to object against these Acts that Julian abstained from the slaughter of Christians: for these were not only Christians, but also soldiers, which Julian could not bear. But besides, they refused to change the sign of the labarum against the express command of the emperor; nay, they even turned others aside from carrying out Julian's orders: all of which things they reckoned to be the crime of rebellion. Add to these that they were condemned not by the emperor, but by his uncle, who persecuted the Christians even to death, so far as in him lay, as Sozomen testifies, book 5, chapter 7. The severer critics of our age gladly subscribe to this judgment of Ruinart. Nay rather, Tillemont, volume 7 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 740 and following, of his own accord explains and resolves several difficulties which could be brought against those Acts: for he thinks that those Acts which Ruinart discovered were abridged from other, genuine and fuller ones, and that therefore certain rather obscure passages occur in them. We shall endeavor to illustrate these and other matters in the Annotations. But first we shall show how certain Spanish writers wrongly attempted to claim those Martyrs of today for their own country, before their Acts had been found.
§ II. The various attempt of those who wished to claim these two Martyrs for Spain.
The Spaniards ascribe these Martyrs to their own country, When certain impostors observed that no arena of contest and no certain time of martyrdom was assigned to these two Saints in the ancient Martyrologies, and moreover thought with Baronius that their Acts had perished, they judged that they had found a convenient occasion for invention. Wherefore they confidently ascribed those two Martyrs to Spain, and even multiplied them without any semblance of truth. Hence the pseudo-Dexter in his Chronicle, at the year of Christ 156, writes thus: At Blanda in Spain suffer the holy martyrs Bonosus and Maximianus. The pseudo-Liutprand, brought up in reserve for the ambush, places the same Martyrs at another time, that they may be believed to be different, and joins to them a companion, in the Madrid edition of his Fragments, page 17, number 66, in this manner: In Spain, in the city of Octogesa, which the Goths corruptly and in shortened form called Ictosa, are celebrated the martyrs Juvenalis, Bonosus, and Maximianus, who suffered under Trajan. Finally the pseudo-Dexter in his Chronicle, at the year of Christ 308, again commemorates two martyrs of nearly the same name thus: At Urgabo in Bætica, under the governor Dacianus, Bonosus and Maximinus, martyrs. You have here therefore in Spain alone three Bonosuses and as many Maximianuses as martyrs, or one of the later ones a Maximinus, if you care to believe it.
[14] Thus indeed the pseudo-Dexter wished to exercise the wits of his interpreters, among whom Francisco Bivar notes the following on his first announcement: among whom Bivar Here therefore were crowned with martyrdom, under the prince Antoninus, the holy martyrs of Christ Bonosus and Maximianus, whose memory abides with blessing in the Martyrologies on the XXI day of August, where Ado affirms that the Acts of their martyrdom also survive. Usuard likewise says: On the same day, of the holy martyrs Bonosus and Maximianus, whose Acts are extant. Equilinus, book XI, chapter 138, number 218, says: Bonosus and Maximianus, martyrs, suffered on the XII of the Kalends of September, whose deeds Ado says are extant. But Galesinius reports that Bede also mentioned them, and says: On this very day, of the holy martyrs Bonosus and Maximianus, whose deeds bravely done for the faith are read. In the Roman Martyrology nothing is said of the Acts, since, as Baronius observes in his Notes, they now seem (alas!) to have perished, to the loss of the Saints' glory: for nowhere have they been found; but God will one day give light to those Acts, as we trust. Certainly, beyond the expectation of Bivar and others, God afterwards gave light to the Acts of these Martyrs, but not to such as Bivar himself probably fabricated, as we shall see below.
[15] Meanwhile let the curious reader observe that here the martyrs of Blanda are referred by Bivar to the XXI day, and Tamayo distinguish a threefold class of them and afterwards distinguished from the martyrs of Urgabo of the same name, when on the other announcement of the pseudo-Dexter he notes this: The martyrs treated of here are indeed different from those treated of above at the year 156, although both are called by the same names: although the former are called Bonosus and Maximianus, but these Bonosus and Maximinus. Certainly the diversity of cities and of times proves them to be different, since the former are read to have suffered at Blanda, these at Urgabo; the former in the year 156, these in 308. Tamayo adds to these the martyrs of Octogesa, of whom no mention is made in Bivar, and distinguishes them also from the others in his Notes on the Spanish Martyrology, for these reasons: For these, with Juvenalis, he says, suffer at the city of Octogesa in Celtiberia in the time of Trajan, about the year 110; those first ones at the city of Blanda in Tarraconensian Laletania under Antoninus, about the year 156; the last at Urgabo in Bætica, in further Spain, under Diocletian and Maximian in the year of the Lord 301, which Father Bivar also noted in the Commentaries on Dexter at the said year 308, number 4, folio 360, although concerning these men of Octogesa there is deep silence in him. But who they were, neither does Liutprand set forth, nor have we anywhere found their Acts, and therefore we could not easily write them, being content with the report of this commemoration. The rest the Lord will deign to make manifest in his own time, that the Church may celebrate the deeds of such great men.
[16] on the authority of the pseudo-Dexter and Liutprand, Now Tamayo refers all these martyrs to the XXI day of August, and on that day magnificently announces a threefold class of them in his own Spanish Martyrology in these words: At Octogesa in Spain, of the holy martyrs Juvenalis, Bonosus, and Maximianus, who, when the emperor Trajan was stirring up a persecution against the Church, being seized for the faith, after the straits of tortures laid down their throats to the blade and their souls to the Lord. Then he records the others thus: At Blanda in Hither Spain, of the holy martyrs Bonosus and Maximianus, who, being slain for the confession of the faith of Christ, exchanged this toilsome life for the eternal heavenly one as martyrs. Finally he adorns the last with this elogium in the same place: At Urgabo in Bætica, of the holy martyrs Bonosus and Maximianus: who, being brothers sprung from the city of Illiturgi, gave their names to Christ; and, having been made soldiers, served the Roman emperors with vigorous eagerness in the irregular war at Seville. But when the storm of the persecution of the governor Dacianus came on, being seized for the faith, hung upon the cochlea, and wearied with other tortures, at length, their necks being cut off, they were crowned with martyrdom and earned the palm.
[17] which Cardinal Aguirre hisses off the stage. But all those announcements rest upon the testimony of Dexter and Liutprand, whom learned men everywhere, and the more prudent Spaniards themselves, now hold for supposititious authors, and concerning whom the most eminent Cardinal Aguirre in the preface to the Councils of Spain, volume 1, page VII, number 39, judges thus: Both in these, he says, and in the dissertations, we take small or rather no account of certain monuments of unsound credit, or Chronicles, which under the names of Dexter, Maximus, Heleca, Liberatus, Liutprand, Julian Perez, and Haubertus of Seville have from about the end of the preceding century until now been hawked about, plainly to the vast detriment and injury of truth and of the history of the affairs of Spain; within which many learned men from that time either laugh at those fabrications along with the most learned Mariana and other foreign writers, or vent their bile and sharpen their pen along with Don Nicolás Antonio, the most celebrated author of the Bibliotheca Hispana, comprised in five full volumes, three of which, not yet published, are in my keeping, and will σὺν Θεῷ one day see the public light. Nay, that most distinguished man Don Manuel González, who in his Commentaries on the Council of Elvira gave some credit to those Chronicles, afterwards, from about the year 1670, began to deride them and hold them in contempt, in my presence. And so, whatever very many men less versed
in chronology, history, and criticism may say and clamor in honor of those medleys, fabricated by the ill-employed brains of certain men, we shall follow and hand down only those things which are, or shall altogether appear to be, conformable to antiquity and to truth. The Portuguese Academy of History, and other learned men, both Spanish and foreign, now everywhere follow that prudent judgment of the most eminent writer.
[18] But if anyone should ask of Tamayo which of this threefold class of Martyrs is assigned to the XXI day of August by Ado, Bivar asserts that the bodies of these Martyrs Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology, he reviews in the notes to his Martyrology the various opinions of the Spaniards. Nay rather, Bivar, who before had fitted the announcement of Ado and of the Roman Martyrology to the martyrs of Blanda, afterwards applied the same to those of Urgabo: for when in the town of Urgabo, which is now commonly called Arjona, certain bodies had been found in the year 1628, Bivar in his Apologeticus for Flavius Lucius Dexter, §6, contends that at that time the bodies of SS. Bonosus and Maximianus were also found there. We know that very many witnesses were adduced by the people of Urgabo, to prove the sanctity of those bodies from the frequent lights appearing at the place of burial and from other prodigies. Nor are we ignorant that they labored at Rome to celebrate every year with a double Office these martyrs, when found, as their own countrymen and patrons. But what they obtained at Rome we do not know, and we leave this question to be decided by the Apostolic See.
[19] Nevertheless, from all those testimonies, even if they be supposed most true, it can only be proved were found in the town of Urgabo, that these are venerable bodies of anonymous Saints, since none of their proper names was found in this discovery. This Bivar himself is compelled to confess, when in his aforesaid Apologeticus, §6, number 37, he writes thus: Perhaps someone will object to me that no writing was found at Urgabo which reveals the names of the Martyrs. Whence therefore shall we have it that these were the very men whom Dexter mentions in his Chronicle, and not others? I confess that a writing is wanting there; but in truth the notable and most well-known circumstances of the whole business generate an evident persuasion of the truth itself: for whose feasts, I ask, were being celebrated? Whose relics were being longed for? For it is not to be thought to have happened by chance that heavenly lights caused the relics of those Saints to emerge into the light at that time rather than at another, unless someone should wish that God wrought so many and so stupendous miracles by chance. He therefore assented to the prayers of those who were suppliantly searching for the most sacred remains of the martyrs Apollo and Bonosus and the rest; and for that reason the number of the entire bodies was preserved by divine dispensation, as by the sound of a mute tongue, for the making known of the names of those same martyrs.
[20] Lastly Bivar, seeing that this answer of his was not sufficiently strong, and he strives to prove this from their new Acts, and that it also served for Apollo, Isacius, and Crotates, whose feast nevertheless is kept in the Martyrologies on the XXI day of April, argues from the authority of the Acts, in which the names of SS. Bonosus and Maximianus are expressly stated, and who are there said to have undergone martyrdom on the XXI day of August. But of what sort, I pray, are these Acts? Namely those which Bivar himself composed, or which he received recently composed by another. Bivar indeed, in the preface of his Work which he inscribed to the holy Bonosus and his companions, martyrs of Urgabo, at page 2, asserts that he brought forward the Acts of SS. Bonosus and Maximianus from a manuscript codex. But nowhere does he indicate where that codex was found, or where it is still preserved. Francisco Rus Puerta also, in the History of Jaén, published the Acts of these Martyrs in Latin and in Spanish, and there at folio 131 he advises that Bivar found those Acts among the papers of a certain friend. But he names neither that friend nor the place.
[21] which are suspect to us, like others of that kind, So also Tamayo in the Spanish Martyrology at the XXI day of April published, and fitted to Spain, the Acts of SS. Apollo, Isacius, and Crotates, concerning which our Henschen, volume 2 of April, page 843, pronounces thus roundly: Lest meanwhile these Saints should seem forsaken orphans, the fabricators of the pseudo-Chronicle of Dexter took them up, in which at the year 300 they fable thus: At Alba near Acci in Spanish Bætica, the holy martyrs of Christ Apollo, Isacius, and Crotato their glorious companion. And the elucidators of Dexter, Bivar and Rodrigo Caro, subscribe that these are the men reported in the Martyrology and in the Menology of Sirletus; nay, Tamayo de Salazar alleges some Acts of these martyrs from a manuscript Legendary of Astorga, but one which appears to have been written in this century. We therefore say that they suffered at Nicomedia in Bithynia, where Diocletian then was. Something similar we suspect concerning today's Acts of SS. Bonosus and Maximianus, which Bivar first of all brought into the light. Nevertheless we shall set them forth here, that the incautious reader may learn to examine severely Acts of this kind, occurring in Tamayo and other suspect writers, before he gives credit to them.
[22] and which nevertheless we have here transcribed, Now these run thus in Francisco Rus Puerta, in the History of Jaén, folio 131 verso and following: When the most impious emperors Diocletian and Maximian were harassing the Church of God, and by their command Dacianus in the Spains was slaughtering many of the Christians with exquisite torments, there were living at Illiturgi two brothers, Bonosus and Maximianus, born there of parents of a more liberal condition and brought up in the Christian faith and in good letters; and they were indeed youths of good disposition, withdrawn from all vicious actions, and by their morals were an example and a comfort to many. But there befell in those days an irregular war, which infested Bætica, because the prefect of Seville wished to seize the city and the province for himself against all law and right. Then Bonosus and Maximianus embraced the military service, that they might defend justice; and there they bore themselves vigorously, being made likewise an example of good works to the other soldiers.
[23] that the curious reader might see, But when that war had been happily finished, having returned home they were affected with a vehement desire of offering themselves to the Lord through martyrdom as an acceptable and unspotted victim; toward which they exercised and encouraged one another. But when Dacianus was staying at Urgabo in the citadel of the Roman soldiers, a place designated for the punishments of the Christians, and heard many things concerning them, he sent officers to present them before his sight. When this had been done, Dacianus said to them: "Since it is established that you have once professed the military service, it is needful that you persist in the same, and inhabit and defend that citadel with the other soldiers." Bonosus and Maximianus answered: "We indeed are already soldiers, but of Christ." Dacianus said: "Do you wish rather to be soldiers of this man than of the emperors?" The holy martyrs answered: "Yes indeed, and this is far more pleasant to us." The prefect said: "I therefore will inflict a cruel death upon you, and then we shall see what Christ, whom you adore, will be able to profit you." The holy martyrs said: "Then, O Dacianus, we shall be happier and truer soldiers of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit we venerate as one God in Trinity."
[24] Then Dacianus ordered them to be tortured on the cochlea, in such a way that, being cast down from the top of the citadel, how much these differ from the genuine Acts of the same Martyrs, they should be driven up and down hanging from a rope, and, when they came down near the earth, the bodies of the holy Youths were battered by the attendants prepared there with strong bars, and none the less were sharply dashed against the wall in the sudden ascent and descent. But in this torment they were sustained by the Lord that they might not fail, and, as it were hanging in the air, were held up by an invisible grace that they might not be broken asunder. Then Dacianus said: "You see to your own hurt how strong our emperors are, from whose hands your God cannot snatch you. Will you now become their soldiers?" The holy martyrs answered: "Nay rather we have experienced the feeble strength of those men, and the infinite power of Christ, who animated us that we should not fail." The governor ordered them to be kept for eight days in the close custody of the citadel, and there to be tortured with continual thirst, in the midst of summer, and with other torments. Their parents also came, moved by natural affection, to the judge, begging that he would have pity on their youth. To whom he gave the opportunity of turning them, if they could, from their purpose by words and tears. But the Saints of God used such words to their own that the parents, having seen the constancy of their sons and their ardent desire of martyrdom, rather encouraged them toward the crown.
[25] And so at last they were ordered by Dacianus to be beheaded, and thus for the name of Christ their heads were cut off publicly on the XII of the Kalends of September, which we shall now presently publish. at the third hour after noon, Bonosus being in his twentieth year and Maximianus in his eighteenth. But their parents approached the judge, that he would grant them the bodies to be buried in a decent place; which nevertheless he refused, wishing them thus to remain unburied, that they might be a terror and an example to the rest: which bodies nevertheless God clothed until far into the night with a heavenly splendor, until certain Christian soldiers, going out secretly from the citadel, buried them secretly at the foot of the citadel, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is glorified, God through the endless ages of ages. Amen.
Let the supreme Pontiff of the Church and the sacred Congregation of Rites judge whether, on account of these Acts, whose authentic credit is not assigned, a proper Office of SS. Bonosus and Maximianus is to be granted to the people of Urgabo. If ever there were martyrs of this name in Spain, certainly they differ much from our Martyrs of today, whose genuine Acts we shall now reprint from Ruinart, and illustrate with the customary Annotations.
THE PASSION
Which Thierry Ruinart dug out from a manuscript Codex of the monastery of blessed Mary of La Sauve-Majeure, and published at Paris in the year 1689 among the Acta Martyrum sincera, from page 664.
Bonosus, M., at Antioch in Syria (St.)
Maximilianus or Maximianus, M., at Antioch in Syria (St.)
BHL Number: 1427
FROM PRINTED SOURCES.
[Julian the Count, having exhorted these soldiers in vain to the worship of the gods,] Julian the Count a said to Bonosus and Maximilianus: "Our lord the emperor b has commanded that you must change the sign which you have on the labarum c." Bonosus and Maximilianus said: "We can by no means change the sign which we have." Julian the Count said: "The lord emperor has commanded that you worship the gods whom he himself and I worship." Bonosus said: "We cannot worship gods who have been made by men." Julian the Count said: "Fulfill now the sacred command, before you see your flesh afflicted with torments." Bonosus and Maximilianus said: "We are ready to endure martyrdom for the name of Christ."
[2] first St. Bonosus, Julian the Count said: "Let Bonosus be set forward d." And when he was set forward, Julian the Count said to Bonosus: "Adore the gods whom the emperor and we worship." Bonosus said: "We both hold and worship that law which we received from our parents; but these gods we know not." Julian the Count said: "Justly have I received power to torture you and to burn you with flames." Bonosus
said: "We do not fear thy terror." Julian said: "Fit him to the leaded scourges e." And when he was being beaten with the leaded scourges, and he had laid more than three hundred blows upon him, Julian said to Bonosus: "Spare thyself thy punishments, and do what is commanded thee." Bonosus therefore, smiling beneath the leaded scourges, answered nothing. Julian said: "What sayest thou, Bonosus?" Bonosus answered: "We worship the living God, and serve him alone; but who your gods may be, we know not."
[3] then St. Maximilianus Julian said: "Let Maximilianus be set forward." And when he was set forward, Julian said: "Worship the gods whom we also worship; and change the sign which you have upon the labarum." Maximilianus answered, saying to Julian: "Let these thy gods first hear thee and speak to thee: and when they have spoken with thee, then we too shall be able to adore them. But how are your gods worshipped and adored by you, having neither word nor sense? But our God has great power, in whom we hope, and we hasten to martyrdom, wherein also we trust to have our hope. For thou thyself knowest, and art not ignorant f, that it is commanded us not to adore idols deaf and dumb."
[4] he orders them to be afflicted with various torments, Julian said: "Let Bonosus and Maximilianus be fitted to the rack." And when they had been fitted, Julian said: "Set them forward." And when they had been set forward, Julian said: "You see that you are being subjected to savage torments. Fulfill now the sacred command, and do not turn aside all your comrades by your perverse exhortation; but, as is fitting, do what has been commanded; and change the sign which you have upon your labarum, and receive the sign of the immortal gods." Bonosus and Maximilianus said: "We do not do what thou commandest to be done against God. We have a God living, invisible, and immortal, in whom we hope." Julian said: "Beat them." And when for the third time they were being beaten with the leaded scourges, and did not feel it, Julian said: "If your obstinacy could not be bent thus far, I have yet something to add to your punishments. Bring me pitch, which, being kindled with the fiercest fire and poured into the basin of the furnace, may there consume them, plunged in it, with the punishment of fire. Where is that God of theirs, in whom they say they believe with a ruinous hope? Let us see whether he will be able to free them."
[5] And when they were plunged there, and were not afraid, but were hastening joyfully to a glorious martyrdom, which did them no harm. suddenly they were sprinkled as it were with dew g, and the flame was softened, and the pitch \* became cold, and everything that the cruel executioners of the devil had prepared for their punishment was quenched, so that they felt not even any pain in their limbs. But lest perchance any testimony of so great a confession should be lacking — inasmuch as their bodies did not feel the punishments — certain marks of the torments were left, which should bear witness to the truth. But when, secure and undaunted, they were paying the vows of their prayer in that punishment, and, in no way terrified by the torments, had endured the pains h, the Jews and the heathen, who had come to mock at their destruction, began to cry out: "These are magicians and sorcerers. Thus did their Christ work his sorceries." And when these things had been announced to Secundus the prefect, astonished, he ran with wonder to see what had been done. And when he had seen it, he said: "Give me priests of the gods, and I will do the like to them, and let us see whether they can be saved, as these were." And the priests of the idols were brought and offered incense, and did according to their custom, as they were wont in their sacrifices. And when those priests had done everything according to their rite, they were cast into the pitchy flame i; and there their flesh remained.
[6] These being consumed, Julian the Count was confounded; and again he ordered Bonosus and Maximilianus to be shut up in prison, Afterwards, by starvation until the Prefect should sit and hear them. But for seven days, the prison being closed, the chains fell from all who believed in Christ. Then, moreover, the Count sealed bread with his own seal k and sent it to them in the prison, that even so through the bread they might be seduced. But on the day on which they were to be heard, Bonosus and Maximilianus said to Julian: "Behold, the loaves which thou didst send we have not eaten: for he in whom we believe has himself filled us, and therefore we do not fear your terrors. But our God Jesus Christ will deign to exact our torments from you."
[7] Then Secundus the prefect, being angered l, said to Julian: and with quicklime "Let us hear them today." And when they had sat down and were hearing them, and their wickedness availed nothing with them, Julian said: "Bring me quicklime, and I will shut them in it, and let the lime be slaked over them; and let us see where their God will be, whether he can free them." And when they had been cast into the quicklime, they began to slake it from above. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying: "Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, God of Abraham, and God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, who hast deigned to free us from the hands of our enemies, and art praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages." And when the lime had been slaked, and had done them no harm at all, Julian in anger shut them up again in prison, and ordered the prison to be sealed, and the keys were given up in the palace.
[8] But on the twelfth day, when they had opened the prison and found them shining like candles with exceeding brightness, he vainly attempts to kill them; which could not be put out — then, as to men hungering, they offered them the bread of the sacrifices to eat, that even so, compelled by hunger, they might be defiled by their sacrifices. But they, who were nourished by the holy spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, persevered undefiled and uncontaminated by their sacrifices. But then Hormisdas the Count, who had believed, himself also coming to the prison, by his presence ordered the bars to be opened. And when they had opened the prison, and he had seen them all safe and joyful, and giving thanks to God and to Christ, Hormisdas the Count said to them: "Pray to the Lord for me a sinner, that I may be saved m."
[9] but when he profited nothing, When Julian heard all these things, he raged that he had been conquered by the power of the Lord, and saw himself despised through his servants. But while he was angrily pondering these things within himself, he groaned and said: "Let them be presented to me," he said, "in the Old Bath, and there I will hear them." And when Bonosus and Maximilianus were presented, Julian the Count said to Bonosus: "What power of thy God dost thou show, that thou shouldst depart a Christian from my hands?" Bonosus said: "Our God, in whom we believe, is powerful to accomplish in us the martyrdom to which we hasten, so that we may depart Christians from thy hands." Julian the Count said: "You are to fight with the beasts." Bonosus said: "The God of the Christians can be at hand to free us; and the crown which we hope for we shall receive from him. But we neither fear the beasts, nor dread the things which thou promisest us: but we have God the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirit, through whom we overcome all these things."
[10] and the Martyrs undauntedly confessed Christ, Julian the Count said: "Again I will cast you into a furnace of burning fire, and then you will fulfill the sacred command." When all who had been chosen heard these things, they resisted his command, and with one accord said: "Seeing the contest of our brethren, who are prepared for martyrdom, we too hasten to this, that we may adore the one God, who has shown forth all his powers through his servants our brethren Bonosus and Maximilianus." To this Secundus the governor said: "I cannot interrogate them with torments. Thou knowest, Julian, when thou shalt see worms come forth from thy mouth n." And turning to Bonosus he said: "By God I adjure thee, holy lord o Bonosus, that thou hold me in mind in thy prayers."
[11] he orders them to be struck with the sword, Then Julian the Count said to Jovianus and Herculianus: "Change the sign which you have on the labarum, and receive the sign of the gods; and why do you defend the sign of the Christians?" To this Jovianus and Herculianus said: "We are Christians under our father Constantine, who received the Testament [p] at Aquilo [q] near Nicomedia, when he was already hastening to the end of his death, and bound us by an oath with all his commands, that we should do nothing against the purple of his sons, or against the Church." Then Julian in anger condemned by his sentence to the sword all who were shut up in the prison, together with Bonosus and Maximilianus; and all the more joyful and glorious did they go forth. Meletius [r] the bishop, with his brethren and fellow bishops, accompanied them rejoicing as far as the field; at which the whole city then rejoiced, which was glad that Martyrs were arising for it. Yet Bonosus and Maximilianus, after a great martyrdom, were struck with the sword.
[12] But after three days worms began without ceasing to come forth from Julian's mouth. Then Julian said to his wife: "Go, wretched woman, to the church [s], and ask for me, that thou sit not a widow; and say to those Christians and shortly he paid the deserved penalties of his savagery. that they ask for me, that this intolerable stench may depart from my mouth." His wife answered him and said: "Did I not say to thee, Depart from the servants of God, and thou wouldst not hear me? And now thou seest thyself tormented with great torments." And Julian answered his wife: "Run, wretched woman, more quickly to the church, that thou sit not a widow." And his wife answered him: "I have been a widow from that day on which I saw thee persecuting the Christians. By thy own deserts, therefore, thou shalt die with worms [t]. I have not dared to pray for thee, lest some affliction come upon me, and the wrath of God strike me with lightning [u]." At this Julian was silent, and groaned. Again he cried out: "God of the Christians, have mercy on me, for my wife has forgotten thy mercy and does not hear me. God of the living, help me, and more quickly receive my spirit [x]." And thus, according to his desert, swarming with worms, he expired. But the holy martyrs Bonosus and Maximilianus rest in peace, and glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Tillemont, volume 7 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 408, and Ruinart in his notes on these Acts, understand by testamentum the baptism of Constantine the Great, which he received near the end of his life.
q. Otherwise Achyron, which is a place near Nicomedia, where that emperor was baptized, as Eusebius testifies in book 4 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 61 and the following. Hence the opinion of our predecessors concerning the baptism of Constantine is manifestly confirmed, which nevertheless was formerly sharply assailed, as is plain from the Responses of Papebroch.
r. He is St. Meletius, bishop of Antioch, whose Acts our predecessors illustrated at the XII day of February, and whose chronological order our Bosch arranged in the History of the Patriarchs of Antioch before volume IV of July, page 52 and following.
s. This address is sufficiently extraordinary. But Julian the Count perhaps thought that his wife would be wretched if she should lose a husband of the highest dignity.
t. This answer of the Christian wife will also seem harsh to some. But that woman had perhaps already often experienced that her husband's repentance was not serious, and that he sought only the health of the body, which he abused for the harassing of the Christians. Certainly Theodoret, book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History, in Valesius, chapter 13, testifies that she addressed her husband Julian thus: Thou oughtest to praise Christ the Savior, my husband, who by a chastisement of this kind has declared his power to thee: for thou wouldst not know who he is against whom thou wast fighting, had he, using his wonted patience, been unwilling to inflict these blows upon thee from heaven.
u. By these words that woman probably signifies that she does not dare to ask health of body for him, lest he should again abuse it for the perpetrating of evil: for perhaps she was begging with silent prayers for the salvation of his soul, unless she had been divinely admonished that her husband was to be left to the just judgment of God.
x. It is to be feared that this prayer of Julian the Count is like the prayer of King Antiochus, who, afflicted with such a disease, acknowledged the divine vengeance, and concerning whom nevertheless in the second book of Maccabees, chapter 9, verse 13, we read thus: But this wicked man prayed to the Lord, from whom he was not to obtain mercy. Further, as to the sincerity of the repentance which Julian seems to express by these words, we leave the judgment to the supreme Searcher of hearts.
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