Secundus

ON ST. SECUNDUS, MARTYR AND COMMANDER, OF THE THEBAN LEGION,

AT VENTIMIGLIA IN LIGURIA OF ITALY,

In the year CCLXXXVI.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Secundus, martyr and commander, of the Theban legion, at Ventimiglia in Liguria of Italy (St.)

BY J. P.

§ I. The place of his contest, the copies of the Acts, the time of his martyrdom.

Albintimelium, whose territory St. Secundus — a man of approved virtue, Notice of the place of contest, an excellent commander of the Theban legion, and a most valiant martyr of Christ — ennobled by the blood poured out for his faith; Albintimelium, I say, supplies us with three things to be noted. The first is the varied and manifold expression of this name: For sometimes it is Vintimelium, or Victimilium, as in Bede (the Plantin edition) and Usuard; Vindimilium, as in Antoninus; in others Albintimilium; and likewise Intemelium, as in Cælius in Cicero, Letters to his Friends, book 8. So also Pliny, book 3, chapter 5, who says that it was called Albium Intemelium, as it is here set (namely in the modern Roman Martyrology). Thus Baronius in his notes upon the same Martyrology on this day. The second is the situation of that place; concerning which I excerpt this from Baudrand: Albintemelium, a city of Italy in Liguria …, Vintimiglia to the Italians, though the inhabitants pronounce it Vintimia; a city of the Genoese dominion (from the year, as Baudrand says below, MCCXXXVIII), on its western coastal shore, episcopal under the archbishop of Milan; it is of small circuit …, and is 14 miles distant from Nice toward the east, etc. The third is the collection of various matters in Ughelli before the bishops of the aforesaid city, volume 4 of the Italia Sacra, columns 427 and 428 of the Roman edition; in which city, he says, the feast of this our Martyr is kept as of the chief patron on the XXVI of August. It will be useful to remember what has been said of the situation of the place of contest below at number 5.

[2] Further, the annual memory of St. Secundus is celebrated in the ancient Martyrologies. and his cult from the Martyrologies: Here for you are their announcements. Of the Little or Old Roman: At Victimilium, of Secundus the martyr. Of Ado: At the fort of Victimilium in Italy, the birthday of blessed Secundus the martyr, a man of high rank, and commander of the legion of the holy Thebans, who before blessed Maurice and the rest, after chains and prisons, fulfilled his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head. With Ado agrees Usuard; but he omits what the other adds concerning St. Maurice and the rest, which pertains elsewhere. To Usuard add the modern Roman: At Albintimelium, a city of Liguria, of Saint Secundus the martyr, a man of high rank, and commander of the Theban legion. Brief is what Ughelli delivers concerning the Saint's relics, at column 427 cited before: Whose head, he says, is afterward in the cathedral (the discourse is of the church of Cemele, as it is there called, or of Ventimiglia); but the rest of his sacred remains, carried to Turin, are honored with great veneration. Thus far of the public veneration of our holy Champion. Now we shall treat of some copies of his Acts.

[3] notice is given We have a copy of them from a manuscript codex of the monastery of St. Maurice of Magdeburg, by an author of unknown name and time. The Prologue thus begins, and it is long: Recalling with due veneration the glorious deeds of the blessed Martyrs, and their pious and admirable contests, etc. Afterward he inserts into that same prologue the following: From this city, then (Thebes, which is in Upper Egypt), the aforesaid martyrs of Christ were called Thebans, and the adjacent province the Thebaid: whose beginning, through the deserts of the upper mountains, is the city Syene, which is set under the very summer tropic, that is, under Cancer; and on that day on which the sun enters a certain part of Cancer at an hour of the day, when the sun is then found directly over the very zenith of that city, no shadow can there be cast from any body whatsoever. Nor can the pointer of a hemisphere showing the hours, which pointer they call a gnomon, then create any shadows from itself. It is wearisome to transcribe hither more upon this matter, which that author goes on liberally to heap up. Then he thus begins the Passion of the Saint: Under Diocletian, therefore, and Maximian, emperors, there was a certain man of high rank and most illustrious in the province of the Thebaid, named Secundus, sprung of most noble birth and parents, and remarkably adorned with the dignities of worldly glory and of singular excellence.

[4] of certain copies which write of the Saint's Acts: He, then, from the first years of infancy is handed over to be instructed in the studies of liberal letters; and being here excellently trained, as was the custom for the sons of nobles, he is appointed to stand by in the imperial offices. For he was comely of face and pleasing in aspect; a young man indeed in body, but in mind and spirit an old man; humble and gentle of heart, grave and modest of countenance; profitable and eloquent in speech, most robust in bodily strength; most steadfast in the bond of friendship, most energetic in the foresight of counsel; most abundantly instructed in the exercises of secular discipline, imbued with skill in the liberal arts, and conspicuous for every uprightness of manners. But being placed in the royal service, he performed, supported by divine grace, all things which had been enjoined upon him. All which, as also the other things that follow, heaped together with so studied a circuit of words, are an indication that that author sets forth not so much a historical narration of the martyrdom of St. Secundus as rather a homily adorned with digressions. These specimens, therefore, I thought should be brought forward to this end, that I might indicate to the reader why that manuscript is not committed to the press. A brief compendium of the martyrdom is had by Peter de Natalibus, bishop of Equilium, book 7, chapter 117, from Ado, whom he cites. Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on the XXVI day of August sets forth another compendium from the manuscript Acts of the church of Vercelli … and from B. Mombritius, who relates the Passion in volume 2; from whom we too shall have the same Passion reprinted. Whether those Vercelli manuscripts are of any value, and of what sort, is altogether hidden from us; because we have neither seen them, nor do we read anything published by Ferrari concerning their author, antiquity or age, or other characteristic marks of them.

[5] The place of the martyrdom, which in this compendium is set at Victimulum M., not far from the town of Cesariano near the roots of the Graian Alps, Ferrari's note is refuted furnished Ferrari with occasion for the following annotation: In the Martyrology, for Victimulum M. it seems that Albintimelium has crept in: for the likeness of the word is not slight between Victimulum and Vinctimilium (for so Albintimelium is called among the common people). For what cause was there that Maximian, going up into the Alps, should send Secundus away to be beheaded at a maritime city so far distant? The old manuscript of the church of Turin agrees, and the History of the Theban martyrs lately published at Turin. Although the Acts related by Mombritius and the manuscript need correction, chiefly in what they have concerning M. Victimolus. For Pliny … calls it Ictimulum, not Victimolus.

[6] But this annotation seems to me so frivolous that it scarcely deserves an answer. concerning the place of the contest. For, 1., the place of the martyrdom, from what has been said above at numbers 1 and 2, stands so solidly fixed by the common consent of the most ancient martyrologists, whom the Roman rightly follows, that I do not sufficiently conceive how it came into Ferrari's mind to seek another. 2. Ferrari is not consistent with himself. For in the very title before the compendium of the deeds of St. Secundus of which I was speaking, and after which he sets the annotation just recited, he marks him at Albintemelium. In the topographical index of the places of Italy which stands before the Catalogue of the Saints of that region, he says: At Albintemelium in Liguria, Secundus the martyr, XXVI August. Likewise in another alphabetical index of the names of the Saints, which follows next upon the former, is noted Secundus, Theban martyr, at Albintemelium, and, on account of his relics, at Turin. The same Ferrari in his New Topography upon the Roman Martyrology, at the name Albintimelium (for so it is there written), afterward Vintimilium, Vintimiglia, city and episcopal see of the Ligurian coast, etc., says: XXVI August, Secundus M., one of the commanders of the Theban legion under Maximian. 3. I should seem to waste time if I were to answer one by one the not sufficiently grounded minutiae which Ferrari added above. And indeed to the Turin manuscript, which he calls old, I answer the same as to those of Vercelli. Since Ferrari says that the History of the Theban martyrs was lately published, it is here of no weight, until the genuine antiquity of the source from which it came be proved. Of the Acts of Mombritius we shall treat afterward; of Pliny it has been said above; but the place which Ferrari cites from him he obscures with a gap of dots, and does not clearly indicate it, so that it might easily be inspected. What more? For us at least they suffice, and they will suffice for the reader,

as we judge, the things which we have adduced for retaining the common and ancient place of St. Secundus's contest. It will therefore be more useful to proceed to certain other matters in the history of the same Champion which need to be supplied or illustrated.

[7] The time of his passion is not indeed determined in the Acts published in Mombritius, Under what emperors, but it is nevertheless indicated approximately, when in them it is related to have befallen under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Although the latter, and not the former, seems to have had either the chief or all the parts in this tragedy. Hence, in my judgment at least, Maximian alone is not badly set in the compendia which Peter de Natalibus and Ferrari published, and of which it was treated before. The Acts of the Martyrs of Agaunum favor this, a fragment of which Acts I shall afterward produce on another occasion; the Mombritian Acts of St. Secundus below in our work likewise favor it, in which, although both the said emperors are named, yet it is narrated at number 8 that the Martyr's head was cut off by the command of Maximian alone. But this matter is of lighter moment, because, the reckoning of time being considered, it happened under Diocletian and Maximian, since both then held the empire. But at what time of that empire did it happen? For since they reigned long together, we have thus far nothing but a vague and undetermined reckoning of the years. The anonymous writer of the Passion, or more truly of the homily, a copy of which is extant with us, as we very lately indicated, from a manuscript codex of the monastery of St. Maurice of Magdeburg, had regard to the notorious Diocletianic persecution of the year 303 of the vulgar era, insinuating that our Saint was not crowned with martyrdom before it. The nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian was passing, he says, … when the edicts of the prince were being set forth through the whole earth, that all the churches which are anywhere should be destroyed to the ground. And several other things interposed, he says, At the same time … the most noble Secundus, etc. But that opinion appears to us less probable, as will be plain from what follows.

[8] and in what year But since the time which we here inquire into is in a manner indivisibly connected with the time of the passion of the most celebrated martyr Maurice, of that same Theban legion of which our Champion was; and since both lived together in familiar intercourse, from the Mombritian Acts in our work, number 3; and since Maurice kept watch over the body of St. Secundus, already a martyr, in the same place, number 9 — it pleases us to look about, whether we may thence conclude something better to our purpose. Ruinart, in his Admonition to the Passion of the aforesaid martyr and his Theban companions, which he published at Paris among the Genuine and Select Acts of the First Martyrs, page 288, thus reasons: Cardinal Baronius refers the passion of the Martyrs of Agaunum to the year CCXCVII; which nevertheless we judge is rather to be recalled to the beginnings of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. But that it may be assigned to the year CCLXXXVI we gather from this, that Maximian Herculius — whom, as the learned Baluze observes in his notes upon Lactantius's little book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, Diocletian had in the preceding year taken into the partnership of the empire — was at that time engaged in Gaul with an army. Yet we do not deny that that passion of the Martyrs may also be referred to the following years. But although he adds this last clause, nevertheless in a marginal note to the Passion itself which he publishes, page 289, he sets the year of Christ CCLXXXVI, which also Labbe admits in his Chronological Compendium at the same year, and Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology on the XXII of September, on which they are entered in the Roman Martyrology; so that it appears strange that he, with this reckoning of time shining out, should have referred St. Secundus on this XXVI day of August, by a too vague and undetermined reckoning, to the third century.

[9] St. Secundus suffered. Tillemont, volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Memoirs, in the persecution of Diocletian, article 2, page 3, treating of the Martyrs who may have suffered at the very beginning of his reign in Gaul, when Maximian Galerius was there, affirms that he came thither in the year 286, and had scarcely crossed the Alps when he ordered the famous Theban legion to be slain, in which St. Maurice discharged a chief office. Their deeds the aforesaid author had collected in volume 4 of the same Work from page 421; but in the second note upon the aforesaid Saint, from page 697, he discusses at length the time of the often-mentioned martyrdom. Since these things are so, we have judged that we come nearer to the true chronology of the death of St. Secundus by affixing it above to the year of Christ 286. But to these things some further light accrues from the occasion of the martyrdom related by him, concerning which we shall now say a few things briefly, when first certain matters shall have been premised concerning the day of his death.

§ II. The day and occasion of his passion; the Martyr's military office; the Acts which are here given by us.

It seems more probable Some ground of doubting occurs to us, whether the triumphal day of our laurelled Champion fell upon the XXVI of the month of August; for on that day indeed the Saint is constantly marked by the most ancient Martyrologists, as we saw before; but in the Acts, as we shall presently show, another is expressly named; and it not rarely happens also that the sacred Fasti announce Saints on a day other than that of their death. The Mombritian Acts at the end say: The most blessed martyr of Christ Secundus suffered on the fifth of the Kalends of September. The same day our Magdeburg transcript sets, which is the XXVIII of the same month of August. Peter de Natalibus, following Ado, says: He fulfilled his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head on the VII of the Kalends of September. Ferrari indeed treats of St. Secundus on the same day; but in his compendium he designates no day of death.

[11] We confess in the first place that we cannot define with certainty that the Saint suffered on the same day on which he is honored, that the day of his cult and of his martyrdom coincide on this XXVI day of August; yet we incline to that opinion which does not distinguish the one from the other, as Ado and Usuard seem more probably to do, already from the ninth century, by whom the birthday, or day of martyrdom, is marked together with the day of cult on the XXVI of August. Nor do the Mombritian Acts frighten me away from this thought; for besides that they cannot be commended for genuine sincerity and authority, they swarm with so many errors that it would be no wonder if fifth had crept into them for seventh of the Kalends. Perhaps also from a faulty copy that other unknown and anonymous writer enlarged his homily, whose fragments we produced before from the Magdeburg manuscript. We do not see what compels us to distinguish the day of the passion from the day of the cult.

[12] But now it will not be beside the purpose, for the illustrating of our holy Champion's history, and the occasion of the martyrdom to add here a few things as to on what occasion he obtained the palm of the sacred contest. The fact is related in these words in the Mombritian Acts in our work at numbers 2 and 3: While divine grace was working these and many like things through him for the salvation of souls, his happy deeds come to the ears … of Diocletian and Maximian, who … thirsting for Christian blood, gnashed with their teeth. And so, letters having been sent, he ordered him to come speedily with his men to the parts of Italy, as though they were to be for the help of himself and of the Roman nation. Then, taking with him six thousand six hundred men — which is called one legion — he came to the emperors. Then are narrated the holy Soldier's contest for Christ and his martyrdom. Observe, 1. It does not seem likely that St. Secundus with his men was summoned from the East into the West in the manner which is there alleged; but that the true occasion of the martyrdom more probably came about when the Saint had already come with the Theban legion into Italy, as is persuaded from the Passion of St. Maurice and his companions composed by St. Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, who flourished in the fifth century, and published in Ruinart, whom I praised above, page 289 and following.

[13] came about not in the East, but in the West. There was, says St. Eucherius, at the same time in the army a legion of soldiers who were called Thebans. Now that was called a legion which then had six thousand six hundred men under arms. These had come, summoned from the parts of the East for the help of Maximian, men energetic in warlike affairs and noble in valor; but nobler in faith, they contended in fortitude toward the emperor (Maximian), in devotion toward Christ. Not unmindful of the evangelical precept even under arms, they rendered to God the things that were God's, and restored to Cæsar the things that were Cæsar's. And so, when these, like the rest of the soldiers, were appointed to drag off a multitude of Christians, they alone dared to refuse the service of cruelty, and declare that they will not obey precepts of this kind. Maximian was not far away. For, weary with the journey, he was keeping himself about Octodurum. The place which is here named is commonly called Martigny, and is a town of Switzerland in the Valais near Agaunum, in which the aforesaid Martyrs were crowned, and which is described at greater length by St. Eucherius praised above. But although this place is distant by a very long journey from Ventimiglia, in which we have recorded that St. Secundus suffered — earlier indeed, yet at nearly the same time, if we believe the Acts — nevertheless, since, as is reported, there is a connection between the passion of St. Maurice and that of our Saint, the occasion of it from Eucherius is more probable to us than that from the Mombritian Acts.

[14] Certain observations You will ask what military office St. Secundus discharged in his legion. I answer. Our copy from the Magdeburg manuscript narrates these things concerning him: It came about that he became so dear and pleasing in all things to the emperors themselves that, among the other gifts of their princely munificence, being advanced through the several grades of dignity, they judged that the command of many soldiers should be given him, and that he should be named with the title of a most illustrious commander. The Mombritian Acts seem tacitly to insinuate that he was the commander or prefect of his whole legion: Then, they say, taking with him, etc., as we related a little before. In Ferrari he is called a Theban soldier, of the chief men of that legion. Ado, Usuard, and the modern Roman Martyrology give him the title of commander of the Theban legion; but the Little or Old Roman only that of martyr. St. Eucherius, very lately cited, signifies that there was a report in his time that St. Maurice was the primicerius of the aforesaid legion, saying at page 29: The greatest incitement … of faith at that time lay with holy Maurice, then, as is handed down, the primicerius of his legion, who together with Exsuperius, the campiductor, as they call him in the army, and Candidus, senator of the soldiers, kindled them, exhorting each one, etc.

[15] concerning the Saint's military office. By the title of primicerius I judge that there is here indicated the chief dignity, or at least that next to the chief, in the often-mentioned legion. For Du Cange in his Glossary says: Primicerius, a military dignity, next to the dignity of tribune. In Jerome, to Pammachius: but first the Primicerius, then the senator, the ducenarius, the biarchus, the cirmicitor, the horseman, then the recruit. But of what sort these dignities were, let the reader see in the authors. But the title of commander, by which we above, before the beginning of this Preliminary Commentary, named St. Secundus, following the ancient Martyrologists, is so far from conflicting with the dignity of primicerius attributed to St. Maurice

by Eucherius, that these can easily be reconciled with it. For grant that St. Maurice was commander or chief prefect of the Theban legion: what stands in the way of St. Secundus — namely a man of high rank, as Ado, Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology say — having had the name and office of a commander of the same legion, even though he did not preside over the whole legion?

[16] In the course of this Commentary I have observed various things concerning the Acts The Acts which we here give which were published in Mombritius; but after I had written these things, I lighted upon a passage from which it seems to be concluded that their author or compiler cannot be commended for antiquity. Now the passage is that in which he records the oratory of the holy Mother of God, ever Virgin Mary, where divine benefits are bestowed. Add the other things which follow concerning St. Juliana, and concerning St. Solutor and his companions, renowned at Turin on account of the divine benefits which have been bestowed upon the needy in the said oratory. That anonymous compiler, therefore, writes of matters which took place after the translation of the said Saints to the city of Turin from a more ancient place, which was situated in the suburb of that same city, and in which their bodies had rested. But because that place, or monastery, was destroyed in the year 1536, it came about that those sacred pledges were then carried thence to Turin. I declare and confirm the matter from the words of our Godfrey Henschen, who in his historical Commentary on St. Juliana on the XIII day of February, volume 11 of that month, page 659, long since left these things noted:

[17] Francis I, king of the French, subdued in war by arms the chief dominions of the Duke of Savoy, and, an army having been sent into the region of Piedmont, with the utmost speed seized Turin in the year 1536; which his son Henry II held down to the year 1559. The French, therefore, having gained possession of the city of Turin, presently overthrew four suburbs together with the monastery and other sacred buildings. Down to that time there had rested in the lower church of this monastery the bodies of SS. Solutor, Adventor, and Octavius, martyrs, and also of SS. Juliana the matron and Goslinus the abbot, laid beneath the altar in a marble tomb, and covered with a great stone. Now there stood in the hinder part of the altar a tomb raised like a wall to the length of the sepulcher, which another marble stone closed. In the presence, therefore, of Benedict de San Sebastiano, Prior of the said monastery, and of the other monks, and of the Clergy and very many religious men of that same city, the altar was destroyed and the sacred monument opened. Then, torches being lighted, the Prior and the monks, having reverently taken the bodies of the Saints out of the tomb and placed them in a great case, transferred them into the city with a numerous retinue of the chief religious of the city, in a solemn procession, and deposited them for the time being in the Priory of St. Andrew, in the chapel of the Mother of God which is named of the Consolation, in the year 1536, on the XXV day of April, as the authentic instruments themselves sent to us from Turin give assurance. But that those bodies were afterward translated into the church of the Society of Jesus is narrated in what is subjoined in the same place.

[18] The last hand, therefore, was not put to the Acts of St. Secundus, as they are published in Mombritius, before the year 1536; do not possess. and therefore they neither have nor deserve the value of genuine antiquity. Let the same be the judgment concerning their whole context, which displays marks, as it seems to me at least, exceedingly mediocre. Then, how do the things which are narrated in them immediately after the martyrdom, at number 9 — But by the nod of God the most holy Body was carried off by stealth by other faithful, that … it might be placed in that same spot where it now is — cohere with the narration of the aforesaid translation, after which the writer or compiler of those same Acts completes his history? These things being observed, it remains that we set before the reader these Acts, such as they are, purged of various grammatical faults and illustrated with notes.

PASSION

By an anonymous author,

From the text published in Mombritius, volume 2, folio 261 verso.

Secundus, martyr and commander, of the Theban legion, at Ventimiglia in Liguria of Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 7568

A. By the anonymous writer.

The Saint, of high rank by the gifts of nature and of grace Under Diocletian and Maximian, most impious emperors, there was a certain man named Secundus, of the province of the ^a Thebaid, sprung of a family of high rank and most noble, but far nobler and more illustrious in the faith and religion of Christ. He was indeed young in years, but in mind and deeds an old man; in whose very face also there plainly shone the grace of a comely bearing, which overflowed from within. For his very name too was a presage of good things to come. For Secundus, as he was called, mystically signified that he was to be exalted by the glory of martyrdom, because the martyrs, although they obtain the primacy among the rest of the faithful, nevertheless after the Apostles hold the dignity of the second rank. But otherwise it is manifest that Secundus designates prosperity or felicity. And in truth true prosperity and felicity accompanied him, since both in the present life he deserved the chief place among the rest, and after the glorious end of his contest to be joined to the glory of the martyrs.

[2] and eager for the salvation of souls, being rebuked by Maximian For holding the ^b primacy among the Roman people, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, by night he meditated in his heart the words of Christ, and when the day dawned he took care sagaciously to impart them to the minds of the peoples, making little account of the cares of secular business. Eagerly desiring the salvation of souls, he busied himself to turn all men to the grace of baptism. While divine grace was working these and many like things through him, his happy deeds come to the ears of the profane princes Diocletian and Maximian, who, exceedingly enraged, like most savage lions thirsting for the blood of the Christians, gnashed with their teeth. And so, letters having been sent, he orders him to come speedily with his men to the parts of Italy, as though they were to be for the help of himself and of the Roman nation.

[3] is condemned: Then, taking with him six thousand six hundred men, which is called one ^c legion, he came to the ^d emperors; and Maximian said to him: We appointed you as a most faithful chief over many soldiers; and, as we perceive, not only have you yourself become a Christian, but you have also turned a multitude of foolish peoples to Jesus the Nazarene, as has been ascertained by us in truth. But do not think that you have done this with impunity: either you shall offer the due sacrifices to our almighty gods, or, being afflicted with various punishments, you shall perish along with those whom you have deceived. And when he in no wise consented to sacrifice to vain images, having eyes without sight, ears without hearing, nostrils without smell, a mouth without taste, hands and feet without touch or walking, Maximian, kindled more and more with anger, ordered him to be bound in chains with others. But Maurice, his fellow soldier and companion, who afterward, among that holy legion, to which he was primicerius and inciter to the palm of martyrdom, deserved to be crowned at ^e Agaunum with the rest ^f — because he was most prudent and filled with the grace of Christ — ministered salutary counsels to the most blessed martyr Secundus, that he should spurn the allurements of this fleeting world, as he had always done, and should not fear the momentary kinds of torments.

[4] And when the holy Man acquiesced in his most healthful counsels, [strengthened by St. Maurice, he rouses his companions to a brave fight for Christ:] the day of his beheading came, on which by a happy death he was to obtain perpetual life. He began to persuade his fellow soldiers and friends that they too, if it should come about — as afterward it did — that they should suffer for the name of Christ, should by no means fear a momentary death or transitory torments; and that they ought not only not to embrace the love of this world, which passes swiftly like smoke or a shadow, but should also shun it as a snare of the devil. And not only to his companions, but also to that whole holy legion — since, when they were setting out for these parts of Italy for the wars, they had chosen him for their ^g commander, while he was still giving himself to the studies of liberal letters — he gave the same salutary admonitions.

[5] There were, nevertheless, those who, as though out of compassion, uttered such words to his companions, some of whom vainly seek to deter him from martyrdom: endeavoring to call them back from the way of truth, saying: Whence have you a breast so iron, that, hastening of your own accord to death, you are minded in no wise to fear pains or torments, but even to account them a great consolation? O incurable penalty, inconsolable grief, irremediable torment! when the hope of joy is taken away, life despised, glory spurned, natural affection renounced, the love of all one's kindred reckoned as nothing, and the atrocity of death sought after. We beseech you, most beloved brethren and dearest friends, [put] at last an end to these disasters, and, being admonished, remember that you are the sons of pious parents, or the parents of sweet children. What is so mad a thing as to suffer various torments for one crucified man, and to be forgetful of every allurement which brings gladness to the mind, and of one's own free birth and perpetual affection and sweet children — since you are also imbued with skill in liberal letters? Again they say to them: What is this madness suddenly begotten in your mind, that it should make you lovers of death? — which is to be loved by no man, and is not only by no means to be cherished, but is established as exceedingly to be dreaded and feared. For if a man held liable under a creditor for gold can by no means love it, on what principle do those seek it who both abound in all wealth and owe nothing at all to anyone? Never has it pleased those who live well; but to whomsoever it has been able to come, it has come unbidden, not sought after.

[6] Hearing these things, the most unconquered athlete of Christ, Secundus, but he refutes them swiftly set the shield of faith and of good exhortation against the diabolical darts, saying: Attend, most valiant soldiers of Christ, and see whether you ought to attend to the salutary precepts of Christ, or to these persuasive and deceitful words of allurements, and to love a life full of the various disasters of diseases — a life which through the anxieties of cares takes away peace, dissipates charity, breaks faith, withdraws hope, and overwhelms all the virtues of the soul; nourishes scandals, brings in pride, provokes envy and vainglory, admits adulteries and murders; or which by drunkenness and surfeiting, and by too sumptuous banquets, so weakens the whole body that even sight itself and the other senses cannot remain vigorous. For while temporal care is too much pursued, while the mind is ever in a ferment for acquiring transitory things, while robbers and thieves or brigands are shunned, and while the love of parents or of children is heedlessly attended to, and God, who bestowed all these good things — if only they were rightly used, and he himself were by no means despised — is neglected: suddenly death, which was greatly feared, coming on, plunges the soul, torn from the body, into the intolerable punishments of hell, and perpetual torments and infinite groanings; where, most wretched and unhappy, it is ever dead to the blessed life, and ever lives in irremediable torments.

[7] and by various reasonings But Christ our Lord and Savior, who, though he was God, as he ever is, both endured the cross for us and various sufferings, thus admonishes us, saying: But they cannot kill the soul

kill. And again: He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And: He who loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me. He himself also both grants tranquillity in this life, and to those who contend for him amid the torments themselves both strengthens the body and affords consolation to the soul, while he promises the hope of eternal life, and of his own most glorious vision, or of incomparable and everlasting joy. But afterward, when the happy end of consummation has been accomplished, who could recount joys so great? — where among the innumerable choirs of angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, virgins, confessors, and of all the Saints, it is granted to stand before the face of the most high Creator; where hunger and thirst, and all grief, groaning, weariness, and fatigue are unknown; where the inestimable fragrance of unfading flowers breathes forth, and the light of eternal brightness, which neither eye has seen nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, how great things God has prepared for those who love him. For while we subsist in this frail and perishing life, will we or nill we, it is necessary that we lie subject to pains and griefs and various sufferings. Death itself, which we so greatly dread, coming unforeseen and bursting into the dwelling of the flesh, leads the soul which it finds unprepared to perpetual torments, to be burned without end, even after the day of resurrection, together with that same flesh.

[8] he exhorts them to better things. Why, therefore, should we not make a virtue of necessity, a victory of captivity? Why should we not gain eternal life out of death? Contending bravely, then, let us desire that through momentary tribulations we may come to eternal joys, where we may be both citizens of God and equal to the angels. Saying these things, he signified with his eyes that they were to be reproached who gave no credit to so evident an assertion. While Secundus, martyr of Christ, was pursuing these and like things, the emperor Maximian, hearing it, ordered him to be led to the governor of the province, Egrestius by name, that he might cut off his head — driven by the counsel of the devil, lest perchance, while his death was deferred through various torments, both the greatest losses should accrue to himself and the gains of souls be mightily increased to Christ Jesus our creator and redeemer: which the one grown old in evil days strives after in vain, since the Savior of the human race both crowns his martyrs by whatever death has pleased him, and never ceases to substitute others in their place, who, contending unconquerably against the cruel tyrant, might bear away triumphs of victory over him.

[9] But after his head was cut off, his tongue, Beheaded, he praises Christ, is received by angels, is buried: which, while he was whole, had ever praised Christ in meditation, cried out upon him, though stammering. But an angel of the Lord, standing in the air, watching and beholding the contest of the holy Martyr, and whatsoever he had done — not letting fall his words, but writing and portraying them within himself as in a book — received his spirit, and, about to bear it to the majesty on high, ascended the sky, blessed Maurice looking on and giving thanks, to whom it was granted to see what he had always desired. The aforesaid worshiper of God gathered up the body of the most blessed martyr, and wrapped it in a bright linen cloth. And when evening was come, the man of God, and afterward made a glorious martyr, blessed Maurice, began together with his other faithful friends to keep vigils about the body of the most blessed martyr of Christ, Secundus. But by the nod of God the most holy body was carried off by stealth by other faithful, that, the Lord so disposing, it might be placed in that same spot where it now is. But rising from sleep and not finding the aforesaid most sacred body, they find only the remains of the blood where he had been beheaded: in which place, that is, in the field of a certain householder named Probus, and of his wife likewise named Proba, a place altogether most suitable, one mile from the fort Cæsarium, which received from Hannibal the name Victimolæ, because there were there fifteen thousand men who had set their line of battle against Hannibal, and first conquered, and afterward were conquered — for this reason, on account of that battle, the name Victimolæ was imposed upon this place. ^h

[10] But the body of the most blessed martyr Secundus, as has been said, his body translated to Turin, taken up by the Christians, was carried as far as the city of Turin, and, embalmed with spices, was placed in a most delightful spot beside the river which is called ⁱ Duria; where by the merit of the most blessed Martyr immense benefits are bestowed down to this present day. For as often as any man shall come thither, whether afflicted with fever, or held by any infirmity whatsoever, or seized by an unclean spirit, if with full faith and entire devotion he shall persevere [in] his supplication, he very speedily obtains what he has asked. And just as by the body of the most holy prophet ^k Elisha, after his death, a dead man was raised up: so those who, coming to the body of this most holy Martyr, have been cured, and amend the vice for which the chastisement had been inflicted, are beyond doubt raised from the death of the soul.

[11] In like manner also, within his own cloisters, in the oratory of the holy Mother of God, ever Virgin Mary, divine benefits are bestowed. where divine benefits are bestowed. For ^l the faithful peoples flock in veneration to the sepulcher of the most Christian and holy worshiper of God, ^m Juliana, which is situated there — she who had buried the bodies of Saints Solutor and his companions, and her own — and either gathering of the dust, or scraping of the ⁿ plaster which is laid over it, they carry it away with them, and confidently take it that speedy health is at hand for them. ^o Whence happy is the city of Turin, which is upheld by the patronage of so great Saints. Now the most blessed martyr of Christ Secundus suffered on the [p] fifth of the Kalends of September under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, but under the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit be honor and glory unto the ages of ages.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Consult what is said in the same place at the beginning of paragraph 2.