Quiriacus Bishop and Maximus Priest and Archelaus Deacon and Their Companions Martyrs

ON SS. QUIRIACUS BISHOP AND MAXIMUS PRIEST AND ARCHELAUS DEACON AND THEIR COMPANIONS MARTYRS

AT OSTIA ON THE TIBER.

About the middle of the third century.

Their cultus from the Martyrologies; their companions, the time, the Acts, and the translation of Archelaus.

Quiriacus, bishop, at Ostia on the Tiber (St.)

Maximus, priest, at Ostia on the Tiber (St.)

Archelaus, deacon, at Ostia on the Tiber (St.)

The Companions, at Ostia on the Tiber (SS.)

BY J. P.

Clearer is the memory of these Saints in many sacred calendars than the historical

narration of their martyrdom, The sacred calendars in which these Martyrs are contained are indicated: as we shall afterwards see, when we shall examine their Acts. First therefore let us produce some Martyrologies in which they are commemorated. The Martyrology published by Florentinius has thus: At Ostia, the birthday of Saints Quiriacus and Arcilaus. The old or little Roman: At Rome, of Hippolytus, Quiriacus, and Archillaus. Ado: In the Port of the city of Rome, the birthday of St. Hippolytus, of Quiriacus, and of Archillaus. To Ado add Usuard, who attributes those three Saints to the same place. Among the abridged Hieronymian Martyrologies which have been published by us, there is found in the Rheinau and the Reichenau copies Cyriacus alone with two others, in this manner: At Rome, of Cyriacus, Abundus, Innocentius. In the Reichenau copy, however, it is written Abundius, Innocentius: concerning whom we treat separately on this day also. Concerning St. Hippolytus announced above, consult yesterday. But the modern Roman Martyrology reports today's Saints thus: At Ostia on the Tiber, of the holy martyrs Quiriacus the bishop, Maximus the priest, Archelaus the deacon, and their companions, who suffered under the prefect Ulpian in the time of Alexander.

[2] Further, a long band of companions, whose names are not expressed in the Roman Martyrology, concerning their companions, is named in the Acts, or in an abridgment of them, in Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on this day, which he produces from the deeds and Passion of St. Aurea the virgin: concerning whom there will be a place to treat, together with the same Roman Martyrology, on the next following day; yet in such a way that we shall note some things here also beforehand, so far as shall be enough for the present matter. Further, the bodies of this Maximus and of Archelaus are preserved at Parma in the cathedral church, as the registers of the same church indicate, says the same Ferrari in his Annotation: but those of Quiriacus and of Aurea the virgin are added to these in Ughelli, volume 2 of Italia sacra, column 142 of the latest Venetian edition. Now it concerns the reader that we should instruct him in a few words concerning the Acts from which our three Champions, named above by us in the title, were taken by Baronius, the rest being announced under the generic title of companions, without the addition of their name: which announcement of the Roman Martyrology it seemed good to us also to follow, for the reason that the Acts of that Saint, from which Ferrari took the names of very many companions, are of small authority, as will appear on the day on which they shall be examined, the twenty-fourth of this month, Baronius saying, at the year 229, number 7, that, being full of faults, they would need to be restored in many places.

[3] Baronius, in the notes for this day on his Martyrology, and concerning the time. observes thus on Quiriacus the bishop and his companions: Their deeds are narrated in the Acts of St. Aurea, where it is read that they suffered in the times of Hippolytus, bishop of Porto, whom we have said to have completed his martyrdom under the emperor Alexander: whence those are to be corrected who hand down that these suffered in the times of the emperor Probus, in the year of the Lord CCXXXV. But those things may be consulted which were disputed yesterday in the historical-critical Commentary on St. Hippolytus, §2, concerning his probable age. Meanwhile we have above attached our Martyrs to about the middle of the third century, since they belong to the same time in which St. Hippolytus more probably suffered. But if other things need to be added to these concerning the time, account of them may be taken tomorrow, when the Acts of St. Aurea shall be treated of. Meanwhile receive the following abridgment from Ferrari.

[4] Quiriacus the bishop, Maximus the priest, and Archelaus the deacon, together with Eusebius and Concordius, priests, giving themselves to prayer at Ostia, wrought wonders upon the sick An abridgment of the martyrdom at that time in which St. Hippolytus, bishop of Porto, suffered, and Aurea the virgin had been banished to Ostia. For they cast out demons from possessed bodies, called back the blind to the light, freed the sick and the languishing from various diseases. When Maximus and Archelaus had one day come to visit Censorinus, who held the first place under Ulpian, and was detained in prison for the faith of Christ, at the very entrance of the prison all the chains with which Censorinus had been bound suddenly fell away of themselves. By which miracle Theodotus the tribune, and Felix, Maximus, Taurinus, Herculanus, Hiberius, Storacinus, Mennas, Commodus, Hermes, Maurus, Eusebius, Rusticus, Monasius, Amandinus, Olympius, and Cyprius, soldiers who were guards of the prison, being converted to Christ, after a three days' fast were cleansed in the saving waters, and, confirmed in the faith by Quiriacus, were refreshed with the most sacred body of Christ.

[5] from Ferrari. But when Quiriacus with his companions, attended by many Christians, was passing that [ * ] where Faustinus, a boy of twelve years, the son of a tailor, lay dead, moved by the tears of the father, he recalled him to life by prayer. These things being reported to Ulpian the prefect, he sent Ulpius the vicar to Ostia, that he might put to death by divers kinds of punishment the Christians who refused to sacrifice to the gods. He therefore, all having been seized, and being in vain frightened from the faith of Christ by threats, commanded Maximus, Archelaus, Censorinus, Faustinus with his father, Theodore the tribune with the soldiers mentioned above, to be stripped and beaten with cudgels, and, as they gave thanks to God, to be beheaded; but Quiriacus to be killed in prison, on the X Kalends of September. Whose bodies Eusebius the priest took care to have buried in divers places.

[6] The body of St. Archelaus translated to Cremona. Lando, bishop of Cremona, is said in the ninth century to have translated the body of St. Archelaus, as Ughelli reports in volume 4 of Italia sacra, column 584 of the latest edition, where these things are found: From the Roman port he brought to Cremona the body of St. Achilleus (so he is there called) of him who once had suffered martyrdom with SS. Hippolytus and Quiritius on the XXIII of August under the emperor Alexander, and laid it up beneath the confession. But what a confession is, is set forth at length in the Hierolexicon published by the brothers Macri, from page 179. Lando is written in Ughelli to have succeeded Benedict in the year 876; but this is corrected in a note, where you will find from Harduin that Benedict was still alive in the year 877: whom see in volume 6 of the Councils, column 191.

Read thither*.