ON SS. ABUNDIUS AND IRENÆUS, ROMAN MARTYRS,
Under the emperor Valerian.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Their cult from the ancient Martyrologies, their Acts, the time of their martyrdom.
Abundius, Roman martyr (St.)
Irenæus, Roman martyr (St.)
J. P.
These two holy Champions left behind them a very memorable notice and veneration in the sacred Fasti, These Martyrs most fully known in the ancient Fasti: being marked assuredly in the chief and classic Martyrologies on this day. For the Old or Little Roman has thus: Of Irenæus, of Abundius. Ado: The birthday of Saints Irenæus and Abundius, at Rome, whom in the Decian persecution Valerian ordered to be cast into the sewer, because they had taken up the body of blessed Concordia which had been thrown into a sewer. And their bodies too were taken up by the priest Justinus, and buried in a crypt near blessed Lawrence. Usuard: Of the holy martyrs Irenæus and Abundius, who are read of in the Passion of blessed Lawrence. Wandelbert composes this little verse concerning them:
Irenæus and Abundius adorn the seventh day with martyrdom.
Bede, published by us, agrees with Ado. Rabanus I pass over, in whose Martyrology, instead of incloacari, is written in cloaca necari (to be slain in a sewer). In the modern Roman they are announced almost as in Ado: In the same place (at Rome), of the holy martyrs Irenæus and Abundius, who in the persecution of Valerian, because they had taken up the body of blessed Concordia which had been thrown into a sewer, were plunged into that same sewer; whose bodies, drawn thence by the priest Justinus, were buried in a crypt near blessed Lawrence. Baronius in his Notes upon the Roman Martyrology observed here some things concerning the Roman sewers, which may be read there.
[2] Baronius in the same place indicates whence are drawn the things which are current concerning our two Champions; whence their Acts are taken, namely from the deeds of St. Lawrence, in which the Acts of their martyrdom are described. But of the many Saints who are mingled with certain Acts of the same St. Lawrence we have spoken in volume 11 of August, on the X day, in the Preliminary Commentary upon that most celebrated Martyr, paragraph 12, page 511; among whom are our Champions of today; St. Cyriaca, widow and martyr, of whom with the Roman Martyrology we treated on the XXI of August; SS. Hippolytus and Concordia, martyrs, whom we gave on the XIII of the same month; St. Justinus, priest and martyr, who is contained in the Roman on the XVII day of September. But in the place in our work just indicated the reader will also find the censures of learned men against the Acts of St. Lawrence. And since these are deservedly suspect, it follows that what is there related concerning our two Martyrs of today does not deserve much commendation.
[3] A compendium of the Acts we have just given from Ado, and what copy is here given: who also treats of them on occasion of SS. Hippolytus and Concordia, martyrs, in our work on the XIII day of August, page 14. But here we shall produce the Passion of Abundius and Irenæus from our copy, which is indicated as taken from the manuscript of St. Salvator of Utrecht, with the substance of the matter untouched, if you except those things which are narrated after the burial of the Martyrs in our manuscript and in Surius; which, even were they not of doubtful credit, nevertheless pertain to St. Lawrence and St. Hippolytus, and therefore have been omitted by us, namely: On the twenty-seventh day after the passion of the above-said holy Martyrs, Decius Cæsar ordered a giving of games to be prepared in the amphitheater, etc. Now receive a few words, reader, concerning the time of the martyrdom.
[4] the time of the martyrdom. If we gave credit to the Acts of St. Lawrence in Surius, and to our transcript mentioned above, our two Champions would have suffered under Decius Cæsar and the prefect Valerian. Ado, as we saw before, speaks otherwise. The Roman Martyrology affixes their death to the persecution of Valerian. And indeed, since they are indicated as having suffered after the death of St. Lawrence, and on the thirteenth day after the passion of St. Hippolytus, in the Laurentian Acts and in our Utrecht transcript, and since the same Hippolytus is recorded as having undergone martyrdom under Valerian, it follows that SS. Abundius and Irenæus were not crowned with the laurel of martyrdom under the emperor Decius, since he was already dead from the year 251 of the vulgar era, but under the emperor Valerian, in the year 258, in which St. Lawrence and St. Hippolytus were slain for the faith of Christ, conformably to what we said in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Hippolytus in volume III of August, on the XIII day of the same month, §2, page 8, number 18. There may moreover be seen the notes of Baronius upon the Roman Martyrology at the announcement of St. Lawrence, letter b. These things being thus set forth, we have above set the aforesaid two Martyrs of ours under the emperor Valerian.
[5] The historical narrative of Jacobilli Jacobilli, volume 2 of the Saints of Umbria, on the XXVI day of this month from page 167, will have it that St. Abundius was a nobleman of Terni, and brother of St. Valentine, bishop of Terni, the first of that name; that he set out for Rome, and was admitted by St. Eleutherius, Pope, into the ecclesiastical service, and afterward ordained deacon. What besides? He likewise narrates that he contracted a friendship with St. Felicianus, a most learned and most holy man, and secretary of Pope Evaristus. Besides this, St. Abundius is said to have accompanied St. Felicianus, consecrated bishop of Foligno in the year of salvation 197, as far as Terni his native place, where the latter received him in hospitality; and that the said Felicianus presently consecrated St. Valentine bishop of Terni, but Abundius a priest; who assisted his brother Valentine in his apostolic labors, and afterward, in his desire for martyrdom, returned to Rome under the persecution of the emperor Valerian, where he found Irenæus. Finally, after Jacobilli had treated of St. Concordia, the nurse of St. Hippolytus, and of the priest Justinus, he subjoins the martyrdom of both. These things we have compressed into a compendium from the said author.
[6] is of slender credit with us. But this historical collection does not cohere with sound chronology. For St. Evaristus, Pope, died in the year 108, or, as is elsewhere read, 110 or 112; which of these is the more correct may be examined on the XXVI day of October, on which he is contained in the Roman Martyrology; to which Pope St. Felicianus, bishop of Foligno, was said above to have been secretary — whom we set under Decius in volume 2 of January, on the XXIV day, page 581. The emperor Decius died in the year 251. How, then, in Jacobilli's system, did St. Abundius accompany and receive in hospitality that bishop, consecrated, as he would have it, in the year of Christ 197? How was St. Valentine consecrated by the same as bishop of Terni, whose death we long since attached to about the year 273, as may be seen in volume 11 of February, on the XIV day, page 754? Nor do we sufficiently understand how St. Abundius was ordained deacon by St. Eleutherius, Pope, who in the chronological table in Tillemont at volume 3 of the Ecclesiastical Memoirs is written to have died in the year 192, but in our work some years earlier, as may be seen in volume VI of May, on the XXVI day, page 363 — while Jacobilli defers the martyrdom of the same Saint down to the year 261. Deservedly, therefore, is the historical narrative of Jacobilli suspect to us, both on account of the chronological points wrongly arranged by him, and also on account of the matters related, which may be denied with the same ease with which they are affirmed, until there be produced most ancient documents, in some way suited to the 3rd century of which we are treating; since the deeds of SS. Abundius and Irenæus lie in the utmost obscurity, as is gathered from what has been said above, and from what is presently to be said in their martyrdom, which I subjoin.
PASSION
From the manuscript of St. Salvator of Utrecht.
Abundius, Roman martyr (St.)
Irenæus, Roman martyr (St.)
BHL Number: 4464
These Acts relate on what occasion On the thirteenth day after the passion of blessed Hippolytus, a certain soldier named Porphyrius came to a certain a sewer-man, hoping that blessed Concordia might have gold or gems in her garments; and he said to him: If you can keep a secret, I will disclose a great gain for your trade. The sewer-man said to Porphyrius: The secret shall be in my heart; do you only speak the truth. And he said to him: Some days ago Valerian ordered a certain Christian woman, the b foster-mother of Hippolytus, to be done to death with leaded scourges in his sight; and when she was dead, he ordered her body to be cast into the sewer; and I hope that she has pearls or gold hidden in her clothes. But the sewer-man was faithful, and secretly a Christian. On the same day the sewer-man said: Show me the place, then, and I will seek her; and when I have found her by night, I will tell you. And the name of the sewer-man was Irenæus. He came to blessed Justinus the priest, and told him all that had been done and disclosed by Porphyrius. Blessed Justinus the priest, giving thanks to almighty God and to the Lord Jesus Christ, bending his knees, said with tears: Let us go by night, my son, to the sewer. Irenæus answered, saying: Allow me first to go to Porphyrius.
[2] SS. Abundius and Irenæus suffered martyrdom. Blessed Justinus the priest said to Irenæus: See\* to it, my son, keep the oath delivered to you. And Irenæus goes to Porphyrius. And Porphyrius showed him the place. Irenæus came with him by night, and found the holy body undefiled; and searching in her garment, they found nothing. That same night Porphyrius fled; but Irenæus called to himself a certain Christian named Abundus; and they took the body of blessed Concordia and brought it to blessed Justinus. Receiving which, he gave thanks to God, and buried it beside the bodies of the Saints Hippolytus and the rest. On the next day the prefect Valerian, hearing this, seized Irenæus and Abundus, and ordered that they be slain alive in the sewer. And they were slain on the seventh day of the Kalends of September. Then blessed Justinus took up their bodies, and buried them beside the body of blessed Lawrence in a crypt in the c Ager Veranus.
ANNOTATIONS.
\ Perhaps Vade* (go).