ON ST. GENESIUS THE MIME, MARTYR AT ROME,
At the end of the III century or the beginning of the IV.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's wonderful conversion, his memory in the ancient Martyrologies, the time of his martyrdom, the Acts, and their various copies.
Genesius, mime and M. at Rome (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
The prodigious power of divine grace
we evidently recognize in
this Saint, who was then suddenly converted
to the Christian faith
when he was publicly exposing the sacred mysteries
of that same faith to the mockery of the heathen,
This Saint wonderfully and hence we learn how incomprehensible
are the judgments of God and his hidden ways,
by which he leads certain men to eternal salvation.
Two like miracles of divine grace
have already occurred in our Work at the day XXVII
of February and the XIV of April, to which may be added
at the day XV of September the sudden conversion of holy
Porphyrius the mime, who, receiving baptism in jest
before Julian the apostate, being suddenly changed
by the power of God, professed himself a Christian;
and presently, by his order, being struck with the axe, was crowned
with martyrdom, as the Roman Martyrology on that
day will announce.
[2] made a Martyr from an actor Doubtless Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, designates these
examples of wonderful conversions, when
in Sermon VIII On the Martyrs, in the edition of our Jacques
Sirmond, tom. 4 of his Works, page
606, he sets forth the various conditions of the Martyrs in these
words: Let us examine who they were, and whence
sprung, who were endowed with this grace. Were they perhaps
certain famous and illustrious men, who boasted of the nobility
of their birth, or flowed about with abundance of riches,
or had been made renowned by some power?
By no means, O men! None of these things had they;
but they were private and common men.
And some of them even menservants and maidservants,
who in weak bodies fought nobly;
others drawing chastely the yoke of matrimony,
others not yet having known marriage. But I hear
that some also, brought up on the stage, suddenly
passed over into the order of athletes, and, being made victors,
obtained the crown, and, after they had been proclaimed,
struck the demons with great terror,
to whom they had once been subject. Nay, many
priests also and temple-wardens raised trophies against*
impiety. Out of such men, then, and women
the choirs of the Martyrs were made up. Here Theodoret
seems to allude to St. Genesius and like
actors, who suddenly passed over into the order of Martyrs,
and migrated from the stage or theatre to heaven.
[3] Whatever be Theodoret's intention, this our today's
Martyr is celebrated in the most ancient Fasti of the Church
at the day XXIV or XXV of August.
The Hieronymian Martyrologies, in Florentinius,
on the 24th day of August or the next; and Wandelbert in Usuard illustrated
in our Sollier, announce on the XXIV day of this month
the memory of holy Genesius the Martyr at Rome.
But Ado, Usuard, and the old Roman Martyrology
of Rosweyde defer his feast to
the following day, in whose footsteps we tread
with the present Roman Martyrology,
which adorns that same holy Martyr with this
eulogy: Likewise at Rome, of holy Genesius the martyr,
who, being first a mime in heathenism, when in the theatre,
the emperor Diocletian looking on, he was mocking the mysteries
of the Christians, being inspired by God,
was suddenly converted to the faith and baptized. Presently,
by the emperor's order, being most cruelly beaten with cudgels, then
hung upon the rack, and vexed by a very long tearing
with claws, and inflamed also with torches,
when he persisted in the faith of Christ, saying:
There is no king but Christ, for whom if I be slain a thousand times,
ye shall not be able to take him from my mouth,
nor him from my heart; he earned the palm of martyrdom
by the cutting off of his head.
[4] We do not know whether this Martyr is honored on the same day in
the most ancient Carthaginian Calendar, is celebrated in the ancient Martyrologies,
since the day of the yearly festival is there erased, and its place
is filled up with points in Mabillon, tom. 3 of the Analecta,
page 412, in this manner: …
Kal. Sept., of holy Genesius the mime. But more expressly
on the XXV day of August the Birthday of St. Genesius is celebrated
in the old Roman Calendar which Jean
Fronteau, Canon Regular, published at Paris in the year 1652,
and whose antiquity must be placed before the year
of Christ 731, as the editor there praised proves in the Prefatory notes, §2. With Fronteau
and others we think it more likely that in this Roman Calendar
there is announced St. Genesius of Rome
rather than the martyr of Arles of the same name,
of whom we shall treat below. But this
opinion seems to us far more probable, because
St. Genesius of Rome for many centuries had at Rome
a church called by his name, whose
roof Pope Gregory III newly restored before the year of Christ
741, as is read in the newest Roman edition
of Anastasius the Librarian, tom. 4,
page 202 or sect. 199.
[5] Even more probably there pertains to St. Genesius of Rome,
the martyr made from an actor, the church and even today in Italy of which
Florentinius in the Notes to the Hieronymian Martyrology
at the day XXV of August narrates the following:
A solemn day is that of holy Genesius, whether the Roman
or the Arlesian, on this very day XXV of August in
a village of Lucca called Bargecchia, where there is a church
dedicated to his name, and a yearly prodigy,
seen also by me in our own age,
endures; nor have I thought it foreign to note it here briefly to the glory of the holy
Martyr. On the eve of the feast of holy Genesius
(ancient images there seem to indicate a mime, and Rabanus commemorates a mime
on this day) a great concourse is made from the neighboring peoples
to that church: for they who labor under the falling
sickness, thronged about by their households or kinsfolk,
for healing or for marvels, being alone set round about,
go eagerly to the church.
[6] he is honored near the city of Lucca. Scarcely do they who labor under a disease of this kind touch that sacred
ground, when at once they are seized
with an epileptic assault, and, having fallen to the ground, are carried by the hands of the pious
to the porch of the church,
and through the whole night of the vigil, by the help of others, they are borne
from the porch to a cross set at the far edge of that sacred
ground, and borne back again, vexed by very frequent
paroxysms of the disease. Very many obtain entire
health; as for the rest, it is a constant report
that for a year they are no longer seized by the disease. All
these things are yearly obvious to the eyes of all who stand by,
worthy to be reckoned among those marvels
which God has willed to be perpetual as genuine signs of the Church.
Hence the surrounding peoples call epilepsy
the disease of holy Genesius,
and against him who knows not how to stand in his place they cast this proverb:
He has touched the ground of holy Genesius.
In this matter we give credit to Florentinius, an eyewitness,
and we are not ignorant that elsewhere, through the intercession of the Saints,
like yearly miracles occur.
Let these things said about the immemorial and hitherto persevering
worship of our holy Martyr
suffice. Now we shall try to assign approximately
the time of this martyrdom.
[7] The time of the Passion is inquired into, The most eminent Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals
refers the martyrdom of this St. Genesius to the year
of Christ 303, num. 118, in these words: Then
also Genesius the mime furnished a remarkable spectacle to the City,
who in the theatre, the emperor looking on,
when he was mocking the mysteries of the Christians,
being suddenly changed by the power of God, began to act in earnest
what before he was wont to act in jest; even to the point that, being perfectly
made a Christian, and having confessed Christ with a loud voice,
and being harried with torments, he at length obtained
the crown of martyrdom. Pagi therefore erred
when, in the Historico-chronological Criticism upon
the Annals of Baronius, at the year of Christ 303, num. 10,
he thus wrote: About this holy Genesius Baronius has not a word
in the Annals, although he speaks of him
in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology
at the day XXV of August, on which, like the other holy
Genesius of Arles, of whom presently, he is honored.
Hence, as I think, it came about that Mombritius and
certain others made one out of two Genesii,
which was the easier, in that the Arlesian also suffered in this
century. Besides the evident error
which Pagi here commits about the silence of Cardinal
Baronius, he also not obscurely
hints that St. Genesius of Rome suffered at the beginning of the IV century,
or in the year of Christ 303.
[8] about which the chronologers dispute, But this chronology of Baronius certain manuscript
copies of the Acts contradict, and
place the martyrdom of St. Genesius of Rome under the fourth
consulate of Diocletian, which falls in the year of Christ
290. But Tillemont, tom. 4 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments,
page 695, contends that to these interpolated
and longer Acts not much credit is to be attributed,
since Diocletian in the year of Christ
290 was not at Rome. But although Diocletian
in the year of Christ 303 celebrated his vicennalia at Rome,
yet Ruinart, in the preliminary admonition
to the Passion of this St. Genesius, which he published at Paris
in the year 1689 among the Sincere and select Acts of the Martyrs,
in the same place, pages 282 and following,
timidly rejects this year in these words: The death of holy Genesius
Cardinal Baronius refers to the year CCCIII; but although it is not altogether certain
and ascertained in what year it happened, yet it
seems more likely that it befell earlier.
[9] Tillemont in the place just cited assails the chronology
of the most eminent Baronius with certain small reasons not
to be despised, and which we assign approximately, although these do not prove the matter
evidently enough, and from some conjectures
he fixes the glorious contest of St. Genesius in the year of Christ
285 or 286. Since Diocletian in the year
of Christ 284 was chosen emperor by the soldiers,
against this Tillemontian arrangement of times there seems to stand
the kindness or leniency which that emperor showed toward the Christians in the first
times of his reign,
as Eusebius of Caesarea, book 8 of the Ecclesiastical History,
chapter 1, testifies. Whence Ruinart in
the Preface to the Sincere Acts of the Martyrs, page LVIII
of the above-said Paris edition, sets the beginning of the first
Diocletianic persecution at the year of Christ 293.
Since amid these chronological tangles
we stick fast in uncertainty, at the beginning of this Commentary
above, in the margin, we placed the martyrdom of our St. Genesius
broadly about the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth.
Now it remains that we
forewarn the curious reader about the various printed and manuscript
copies of the Acts.
[10] Laurentius Surius in the Lives of the Saints at
the day XXV of August published in print the longer Acts
of St. Genesius, and, the longer Acts of him being omitted, which do not please severe censors,
and are commonly accused of interpolation by the learned.
Tillemont is displeased by the opening in them, which
in Surius runs thus: In the reign of the emperor Diocletian,
when for four years all the churches had been closed,
there was at Rome a certain mime, Genesius by name.
At these words of the Acts Tillemont, tom.
4 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 694, observes that the most savage
persecution of Diocletian, which began in the year
of Christ 303, lasted only two years,
and that at that time the churches of the Christians were not
only closed but destroyed. But if anyone
should wish to refer these things to the earlier persecution of Diocletian,
the critic alleged in the same place asks him
whence he knows that the churches of the Christians were then everywhere
closed for four years, as those Acts hint: for
if that persecution had lasted so long, he says,
and all the churches had been closed, Eusebius of Caesarea
would not have kept silence about it in his Ecclesiastical History.
[11] Besides, Tillemont disapproves another narration
about St. Genesius, which seem interpolated, which in the same Acts is thus
read: But when now all the secrets of the divine mysteries
were completed, he was clothed
in white garments, and distributed bread and sweetmeats
and wax tapers. The close of this period supposes
that in the time of Diocletian it was set in custom among
the Christians that the newly baptized should distribute bread,
wax tapers, and other things. But Tillemont
thinks that these ceremonies only began to be used
in the following centuries, when the Christians
enjoyed full liberty of celebrating the mysteries of their religion.
These and like things, which offend Tillemont,
occur also in most of the manuscript codices and copies of our Museum,
in one of which, as also in the Trier copy
of St. Maximin, the Acts of that same St. Genesius thus
begin: In the reign of Diocletian, when for four years there had ceased
the bishops and priests of the Church &c. Florentinius in the Annotations
to the Hieronymian Martyrology, page 775, assigns a like reading
from a certain codex of his own,
and prefers it to the other. But that beginning of the Acts
displeases Tillemont more than the other
related above, since the Church has always had
bishops and priests, and never at Rome have
such administrators of the Christian religion altogether
ceased for four years.
[12] the shorter ones from three Ms. codices These difficulties raised against the Surian Acts and others like them,
which seem grave enough,
do not occur in the brief Passion of that same Martyr,
which Ruinart in the year 1689 at Paris published from page
283 among the Sincere and select Acts of the Martyrs
from three Ms. codices, as in the preliminary admonition
he declares in these words: The Acts of this blessed
Martyr we have indeed found in several Ms. codices,
but in three only pure and sincere,
which Ado wrote out almost entire in his Martyrology.
But of the three codices which
we have used, the first is of the Colbert library;
the second from the library of the RR. FF. Discalced Carmelites
of Paris; the third at length given as a gift to our library
of Saint-Germain by that most distinguished man
Antoine d'Hérouval. All fair
appraisers of antiquity praise these Acts of Ruinart,
and from them we gather that today's
announcement of Ado was taken from the genuine Acts of St. Genesius.
[13] published by Ruinart we shall reprint, Yet in Ruinart's Passion and in the Martyrology
of Ado there occurs a certain mode of speaking
which can scarcely be reconciled with Tillemont's
chronology: for in both those Acts Diocletian
is called a most savage tyrant, to whom
the Christians were hateful. But in the chronological system
of Tillemont and of others, who fix the martyrdom
of St. Genesius at the year of Christ 285 or 286,
that appellation did not then fit Diocletian,
who in the first times of his reign showed himself mild and
gentle toward the Christians, as we indicated above in passing
from the testimony of Eusebius of Caesarea. Hence Tillemont himself,
tom. 4 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 695, freely concedes that
that surname of a most savage tyrant and hater of the Christians
was perhaps here added by those who
afterwards transcribed the original Acts of St. Genesius.
[14] and we shall compare it with the Utrecht Ms. Among the various copies of the Acts, which
are commonly like the Surian Acts, we have preserved in our Museum
a brief copy which Rosweyde once caused to be written out from a Ms.
codex of the Carthusians of Utrecht. In that Utrecht copy,
which comes nearest to the Acts of Ruinart and
of Ado, no mention is made of
the cruelty or hatred of Diocletian against the Christians,
so that it may seem purer than the other copies in this
part. Yet since in it there is
related one episode or another which is omitted
in the sincere Acts, we shall not put that Utrecht copy
to the press; but we shall reprint Ruinart's
edition of that same Passion collated with our copy,
and, illustrating it with the accustomed observations, we shall also assign
in the Annotations or in the margin the various readings of greater
moment.
Annotations* that is, sacristans
THE PASSION
by an anonymous author,
From the edition of Ruinart, which we have collated with the Ms. copy of the Carthusians of Utrecht.
Genesius, mime and M. at Rome (St.)
BHL Number: 3315
FROM THE PRINTED EDITIONS.
Genesius, publicly exposing the mysteries of the Christians to mockery, Blessed Genesius, when he was in the city of Rome a master
of the mimic art of the thymele a, who, standing, sang
upon the platform which was called themele,
and was an imitator of human affairs: and on a certain
day, when he wished to exhibit to the emperor Diocletian
a play about the mysteries of Christian observance —
inasmuch as he was a most savage tyrant, to whom the Christians were
hateful b — and for the sake of this matter, the Emperor
and all the people looking on, lying down in the midst of the theatre as though sick,
he asked to be baptized, and set forth the mime
in these words: Come, my friends, I feel myself heavy;
I wish to be made light. They answered:
How shall we make thee light, if thou art
heavy? Are we perchance carpenters, and are we going to put thee
to the plane? These words raised a laugh
in the people.
[2] Genesius again: Madmen, I desire to die
a Christian. is suddenly converted to their faith, Why? they say. To whom Genesius:
That on that day I may be found as a fugitive in God c.
But a presbyter and an exorcist being called
d, suddenly, God inspiring him, he believed. For
when they had sat down beside his bed, they say
to him: Why hast thou sent for us, little son? Genesius, now
not feignedly and in pretence, but from a pure heart, answered:
Because I desire to receive the grace of Christ, by
which, being reborn, I may be freed from the ruin of my iniquities.
And when they had completed the mysteries of the Sacraments,
and he had been clothed in white garments, being seized as though
in the play by soldiers, and, after the likeness
of the holy martyrs, presented to the Emperor to be examined
about the name of Christ, standing in a higher
place e, he thus made his speech.
[3] Hear, Emperor, and all the army,
the wise men and the peoples of this city. and having earnestly professed it, As often as
I heard a Christian even named, I shuddered,
and insulted those who remained in confession.
I even execrated my parents and kinsfolk f for the sake
of the Christian name, and held the Christians in such
derision that I searched out their mysteries with diligent
examination, that from their consecration I might wish
to exhibit a play to you. But
when the water touched me naked, and, being asked,
I answered that I believed, I saw above me a hand
coming from heaven, and radiant angels standing over me,
who recited from a book all the sins which I had done
from infancy; which g presently they washed
in that very water in which I was drenched in your sight,
and afterwards showed it to me whiter than snow.
Now therefore, illustrious Emperor, and
all ye peoples who have laughed at these mysteries,
believe with me that Christ is the true Lord,
that he is the light, that he is the truth, that he is
mercy, and that through him ye can attain
unto pardon.
[4] is crowned with the laurel of martyrdom. At these things the Emperor h Diocletian, being most vehemently
indignant, straightway, after he had been most cruelly beaten with cudgels,
handed him over to the prefect Plautianus to be compelled to sacrifice:
by whom, being hung upon the rack
and vexed with a very long tearing of the claws,
and inflamed also with torches, when he persisted in the faith,
saying: There is no king save him
whom I have seen; and I adore and worship him; and for his
worship, if I be slain a thousand times, I shall be his, as I have begun.
Christ from my mouth, Christ from my
heart the torments shall not be able to take away. For I greatly
repent that I erred, in that formerly I shuddered at the holy name
in holy men, and too late came as a proud soldier
to adore the true King; he earned
the crown of martyrdom by the cutting off of his head i. Then Plutianus k
the prefect, hearing these things, ordered him to be beheaded on the spot. And
the blessed martyr Genesius was beheaded on the VIII l of the Kalends
of September m, our Lord Jesus
Christ granting it, who lives and reigns through all ages of ages.
Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
al. Ne*
al. a Deo*