ON ST. ANTONY OR ANTONINUS, MARTYR,
AT ROME,
UNDER THE EMPEROR COMMODUS.
The memory of this holy martyr among the ancient Martyrologists, and the place of his burial.
Antony or Antoninus, M., at Rome (S.)
G. C.
In the old Roman Martyrology which our Rosweyde published, the memory of Antony the martyr is today briefly celebrated. But Ado more clearly sets forth that brief announcement, Ado, Usuard, mention this martyr, when on the same day, the eleventh of the Kalends of September, he writes thus in his Martyrology: At Rome, the birthday of blessed Antony the martyr, who, when he was an executioner, saw a young man standing with a sponge and wiping the sides of the holy martyrs Eusebius, Pontian, Peregrinus, and Vincent, as they were being beaten hung upon the rack; and presently he began to cry out: "Truly Christ, whom these men preach, is God." Fleeing secretly, he was baptized by Rufinus the priest; and returning to Vitellius, when he freely confessed himself a Christian, he was condemned by a capital sentence, and was buried on the Aurelian Way, near the Trajanic conduit, on the eleventh of the Kalends of September. Usuard abridged Ado thus: At Rome, of St. Antony the martyr, who, when he freely confessed himself a Christian, by the order of Vitellius the judge was condemned by a capital sentence, and was buried on the Aurelian Way. With Usuard the present Roman Martyrology agrees, save that in it that martyr is named Antoninus for Antony. In the Lübeck-Cologne edition of Usuard also he is called Antoninus, as may be seen on this day in our Usuardine supplements.
[2] Peter de Natalibus in his Catalogue, book 7, chapter 94, either from Ado or from the Acts themselves of St. Eusebius and his companions, briefly relates the deeds of today's holy martyr in these words: and Peter de Natalibus, Antony the martyr suffered at Rome in the time of the emperor Commodus (he held the empire alone from the year of Christ 180 after his father's death, and in the year 192 was strangled) under Vitellius the prefect. He, when he was an executioner and by the governor's order was tearing the holy martyrs Eusebius, Pontian, Peregrinus, and Vincent, raised upon the rack, saw a young man standing and wiping the wounds of the Saints with a sponge (of whom it will be said below on the VIII of the Kalends of September); and being presently converted and baptized by Rufinus the priest, while he confessed Christ he was by the prefect's order condemned by a capital sentence, and was buried on the Aurelian Way near the forum of Trajan on the XI of the Kalends of September.
[3] who seems wrongly to have changed the place of his burial I do not know why Peter de Natalibus changed the Trajanic conduit, expressed above by Ado, into the forum of Trajan, since Paul Aringhi in the Roma subterranea, book 2, chapter 11, or volume 1 of that Work, page 344, number 5, mentions the ancient name of that place in this manner: Indeed in the Acts of the blessed martyrs very frequent mention is made of a certain Trajanic conduit, namely an aqueduct which stood there. Nay, both in a certain very ancient stone and in Publius Victor mention of the Trajanic water occurs. Wherefore it seems probable to us that the emperor Trajan restored aqueducts of this kind and the road along with them, and, having restored them, gave his own name to both. But the aqueducts of Trajan themselves were called by another name the SABBATINE CONDUIT, and by them water was brought into the Vatican courtyard, which Augustus also had brought from the Alsietine lake by a long course into the city for the use of his naumachia, his gardens, and the region beyond the Tiber; from which this water was once called alike Alsietine and Augustan. So he, treating above of the Aurelian Way, which he asserts to be surnamed Trajanic also.
[4] into another. Fioravante Martinelli in the description of the city of Rome, page 327, assigns various martyrs who were slain on the Aurelian Way for the Christian faith and were buried there, among whom Antony the executioner, he says, who, being made a Christian, underwent a capital sentence on the same road near the Trajanic Way. On it was buried St. Peter, prince of the Apostles. On the same was the cemetery of Calepodius, in which were buried Julius the senator, the said Antony, and St. Callistus the Pope; likewise the basilica of Pope Felix, in which his body was buried by Damasus the priest, after he had been beheaded near the Trajanic conduits. Certainly this place of martyrdom and burial is far distant from the forum of Trajan, as will be evident to one inspecting a topographical map of ancient Rome. If it seem worth the trouble, one may also consult upon this Trajanic conduit the Work (especially page 51) which Raphael Fabretti published in Latin in the year 1680 On the waters and aqueducts of ancient Rome. Moreover, mention of today's St. Antony or Antoninus will recur on the XXV day of August in the Acts of the holy martyrs Eusebius and his companions, which on that day, God favoring, will be discussed and illustrated.