Martial

ON SS. MARTIAL, SATURNINUS, EPICTETUS, MAPRILIS, AND FELIX, WITH THEIR COMPANIONS, MARTYRS,

AT PORTO NEAR ROME.

THIRD CENTURY.

The ancient memory of these Saints in the Martyrologies, and the uncertain year of their martyrdom.

Martial, martyr, at Porto near Rome (S.)

Saturninus, martyr, at Porto near Rome (S.)

Epictetus, martyr, at Porto near Rome (S.)

Maprilis, martyr, at Porto near Rome (S.)

Felix, martyr, at Porto near Rome (S.)

Companions, martyrs, at Porto near Rome (SS.)

BY G. C.

Of this band of martyrs we know scarcely anything besides their names, These holy martyrs which are variously reported in the different Martyrologies, as appears from the Hieronymian transcripts, in whose Corbie copy in Florentini they are thus announced on this day: At Porto near Rome, of the pilgrim martyrs, and of the holy Martial, Aurelius, Epictetus, Saturninus, Aprilis, and Felix, with their companions Justus and Julius. But the most ancient Antwerp copy seems to have changed the common noun of the pilgrims into the proper name Peregrinus, as is indicated there in the praised Florentini in these words: At Porto of Rome, of Peregrinus, Epictetus, Marcellus, Aurelius, Felix, Hippolytus, Saturninus. The Martyrology of the Queen of Sweden reads for the name Aurelius Aura; and the most eminent Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 229, number 7, thinks that these martyrs are commemorated in the Acts of St. Aurea, of which we shall treat on the XXIV day of this month, and which Baronius there judges to be full of errors and to need correction in many things.

[2] are so variously announced Whence Florentini on this day in his notes to the Hieronymian Martyrology discourses thus: Baronius, from the Acts of St. Aurea or of St. Hippolytus himself, thinks these pilgrim holy martyrs on this day to be of the companions of St. Hippolytus, bishop of Porto. Bede, Usuard, and Ado mark these by their names, and they are the same as those which are expressed in our codices, one being omitted, Aurelius; the anonymous companions also are wanting in our books, whom nevertheless the Corbie Martyrology adds, and Justus and Julius are readily seen to be superadded by that same codex. The manuscript of the Queen of Sweden writes Aura, perhaps more fitly than Aurelius; for after the contest of Timothy of Antioch summarily related it thus has: "At Porto near Rome, of the holy pilgrim martyrs, Martial, Aura, Saturninus, Epictetus, Aprilis," etc. For St. Aurea is held to have been buried, in the fragments of her Acts in Aringhi from the manuscript codices of the Lateran and the Vallicella, book 3, chapter 8 of the Roma subterranea, at Porto near Rome, or at the mouths of the Tiber, on the IX of the Kalends of September, whereas it would be quite probable that she had been drowned in the sea with a stone bound to her neck on the preceding day. But whether St. Martial and his companions were of those same soldiers who were cast headlong into the sea and were buried by Eusebius in the field of Ostia beside the crypt on the Ostian Way, as is not read in those same Acts — I should think it improbable.* You see here on every side thick darkness, which we cannot dispel, unless perhaps a greater light shall afterwards shine from the Acts of St. Aurea.

[3] Meanwhile let us hear other Martyrologists, among whom the author of the old Roman Martyrology, after enumerating other martyrs on this day, thus has: in the various Martyrologies, And of the pilgrim martyrs, Martial, Epictetus, Saturninus, with their companions. To these Ado adds Aprilis and Felix, whom Usuard following announces the same martyrs in these words: At Porto near Rome, of the holy pilgrim martyrs, Martial, Epictetus, Saturninus, Aprilis, and Felix, with their companions. Our Usuardine supplements may also be consulted, which have made mention of the pilgrim martyrs. But Peter de Natalibus, omitting these pilgrims, enumerates today's martyrs in book XI of his Catalogue, number 219, thus: Martial, Epictetus, Saturninus, Aprilis, and Felix, with certain of their companions, suffered martyrdom at Porto near Rome on the XI of the Kalends of September. Doubtless Peter de Natalibus, or of Equilio, transcribed those things from more ancient records. Further, we above in the title have kept the order of the present Roman Martyrology, which celebrates these athletes on the XXII day of August in this series: At Porto near Rome, of the holy martyrs Martial, Saturninus, Epictetus, Maprilis, and Felix, with their companions.

[4] On account of these various and ambiguous announcements of the Martyrologies, that it is doubted whether they are to be separated from others in which these pilgrim martyrs are now added, now omitted, it could not undeservedly be doubted whether that was a twofold or a single class of martyrs, and whether those pilgrims, perhaps anonymous or unknown, are to be distinguished from the others whose names are expressed. Certainly Florentini in the same place in his notes thus disputes concerning this distinction or confusion: In the Corbie Martyrology the anonymous pilgrims are divided into two classes from the companions of St. Martial, as also in our books, in which is read "At Porto near Rome, of the pilgrim martyrs"; and then separately, "The birthday of Sts. Martial," etc. It is easy to suppose that they were so called pilgrims, their names being unknown, because, having undertaken a pilgrimage to the thresholds of the Apostles, they were led, confessing Christ, to Porto near Rome to be drowned in the sea, or were there in some other way slain for Christ.

[5] or to be joined with them, Nor does it much matter that those martyrs commemorated in the Acts of St. Aurea are said to have been buried at the mouths of the Tiber: for although Porto near Rome was a city distinct from the city of Ostia (for on the left of the Tiber's mouth was Ostia, on the right the port of Augustus or of Trajan), yet since only the island of the Tiber, or the sacred island, lay between, the distance was small, and one city is not rarely taken by writers for the other when it has been cut off. But from the manuscript books adduced the most ancient Antwerp Martyrology differs, and at Porto of Rome presents not pilgrim martyrs but, by his proper name, Peregrinus as the leader of the rest, Epictetus for Martial, Marcellus, Aurelius, Felix, Saturninus, and for Aprilis, Hippolytus. But since Hippolytus belongs to the following day's calendar, and since for the rest all the other codices agree, I have thought that we should not depart from them. Thus far we have groped in the dark with Florentini, and therefore we shall gladly leave that distinction or conjunction of today's martyrs to be illustrated by other investigators of antiquity.

[6] and that the certain time of their martyrdom is unknown, Now something brief remains to be said concerning the time of the martyrdom, which the most eminent Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 229, number 7, places under the emperor Alexander, because he judges these martyrs to have been of the companions of St. Hippolytus. But even if we granted that today's martyrs suffered together with St. Hippolytus, yet we could not even so assign the certain time of this martyrdom, as is evident from what we have set forth in the historical Commentary on St. Hippolytus concerning the epoch of his martyrdom. Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology, upon the Roman announcement of our martyrs, notes that they underwent martyrdom in the third century; which chronology, taken broadly, we too have expressed above in the margin, because it is not sufficiently established that they and St. Hippolytus obtained the laurel of martyrdom at the same time.

[7] since the records of them have perished. Moreover, for the time or the Acts of these martyrs nothing can be drawn from their posthumous records

since the praised Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 270, number 15, describes the ruin of the church of Porto, among other things, in these words: In vain have the monuments of the other martyrs of Porto been sought out; for there are absolutely no traces there of Eutropius, Zosima, and Bonosa, nor of those glorious fifty soldiers who, being converted to the faith at the contest of St. Bonosa, underwent martyrdom, all of whom St. Felix the Pope washed with sacred baptism and rendered braver for the fight for Christ — men known only from ecclesiastical documents. But neither was there any remnant of the memory of the holy martyrs Martial, Saturninus, Epictetus, Maprilis, Felix, and their companions, of whom there is clear mention in the Acts of that same Hippolytus. What credit the Acts of St. Hippolytus deserve we have shown above on this day from the gross anachronism, of which it is useful here to be mindful.

perhaps it reads, not improbable*, etc.