ON ST. GAUDENTIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR,
AT ROME
In the time of the heathen emperors.
Her cult from the ancient Calendars and the Roman Martyrology.
Gaudentia, virgin and martyr, at Rome (St.)
J. P.
The name of this Saint is inscribed in the Martyrology of Usuard on this day thus: Likewise at Rome, of Saint Gaudentia the virgin. She was not unknown to more ancient hagiologists either: for, as is observed on the text of the same Martyrology by Sollier, In the Hieronymian copies there is noted in the first place "Gaudentia the virgin with three others." These same words are read in Rabanus, upon which I could wish some light might be brought from somewhere. Moreover that Gaudentia is passed over by Ado and Notker: whence I do not doubt that Usuard received her from the Hieronymian copies. Thus far he. I do not name the very many copies, both manuscript and printed, which mention her, nor with these the Roman Martyrology, in which it stands thus: Likewise at Rome, of Saint Gaudentia, virgin and martyr, with three others. You see, reader, that this Virgin is not everywhere honored with the title of martyr; concerning which matter it is fitting to observe the following. That she was a martyr is urged first because three others, men or women, are joined with her, as sharers, as I at least understand it, of the same sacred laurel of martyrdom. The Corbie transcript in Florentinius records it thus: III Kal. (of September) at Rome, the birthday of St. Gaudentia the virgin with three others. And in the same place the most ancient Martyrology of St. Willibrord agrees with it. Secondly, in those ancient Calendars it is the birthday of Martyrs that is usually announced. Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, in a note, says: Usuard makes her a virgin, no mention being made of martyrdom: whether she was a Roman is uncertain, since she was passed over by Antonio Gallonio in his book on the Roman Virgins. But Florentinius answers him in his notes: That she was a virgin both our books and nearly all the rest note by a special crown: some of which, while they do not expressly call her a martyr, gave Ferrarius a handle for doubting whether she was a martyr; but from the manuscripts and from the style of the older Martyrology no room is left for doubt. The time of her martyrdom is unknown to me. It seems, however, to be referred to the persecutions of the heathen emperors.
ON THE LX HOLY MARTYRS OF SUFES
IN AFRICA.
In the year CCCXCIX.
Their cult from the Roman Martyrology: the place, occasion, and time of their martyrdom.
The LX Martyrs at Sufes in Africa (SS.)
BY J. P.
This handful of Martyrs the Roman Martyrology announces on this day: The announcement from the Roman Martyrology: the place of their death At the Colony of Suffetula in Africa, of the blessed sixty Martyrs, who were slain by the fury of the heathen. It is added in the notes: Of these St. Augustine writes in letter 276. These suffered when, by the edicts of the emperor Honorius, which are recorded in the Theodosian Code under the title On Pagans, it was commanded that all images should be broken; of which laws indeed Augustine makes mention in The City of God, book 18, chapter 54, etc. Concerning the place of their contest it has seemed good to gather this. Baudrand describes its situation thus: Suffetula, an inland city of Africa in Antoninus, formerly episcopal under the archbishop of Carthage, distant thence 172 miles toward the winter sunrise, from Hadrumetum 100, from Theveste 70. Whether it now exists is uncertain. There was also an episcopal city of Sufes. In Charles de Saint-Paul's Sacred Geography, page 102 of the later edition, Sufes is set down, and on page 103 Suffetula. But in Ruinart, in the notes on the History of the Vandal Persecution, page 305, there occurs Praesidius of Suffetula, of whom he observes this: This prelate is mentioned in Victor of Vita, book 2, number 16, above page 38, and in note 93 on this passage, page 172.
[2] is illustrated: And presently, Privatianus of Suffetula, he says, sat in the Council of Carthage under St. Cyprian, among the Rebaptizers, number 19. He adds more. This diocese is therefore different from that of Sufes: for there follows in the same place Eustratius of Sufes … who in the Council of Carthage, as he observes, under St. Cyprian, number 20, delivered his sentence as Privatus of Sufes: to whom, and to Privatianus of Suffetula, mentioned in the preceding number, Augustine replies in book 6 On Baptism against the Donatists, chapters 26 and 27. In the Conference of Carthage, chapter 142, when Serenianus, bishop of Midita, had been named, immediately Peregrinus, the Donatist bishop of Sufes, who is also so called in chapter 187, interposed, asserting that this place belonged to his own diocese, where he had a priest named Victor… Moreover Sufes is mentioned in Antoninus's Itinerary. In the synod of Sufes blessed Fulgentius as a suppliant besought the fathers that the higher place above himself should be granted to Quodvultdeus the bishop, as is related in his Life, chapter 29. Augustine in letter 50 mentions the sixty Suffectan Martyrs, whom the inhabitants of that town butchered on account of the image of Hercules that had been broken. Their memory the Roman Martyrology celebrates on the XXX day of August. The situation of each of the places just named is exhibited by the praised Charles de Saint-Paul on the geographical map at page 77. Cellarius also may be consulted in his Notice of the Ancient World, book 4, chapter 4, where he treats of Africa Proper or Carthaginensis. Moreover I have judged that our Martyrs ought rather to be announced at Sufes (whence is formed the derivative Sufetanus, which coincides with Suffectanus, the word St. Augustine used) than at Suffetula.
[3] The emperor Honorius commanded the idols in the West to be destroyed; they are slain by the heathen which thing afforded our Martyrs the occasion of obtaining the happy laurel of blood shed for Christ. Tillemont, in volume 5 of the Emperors, under Honorius, article 12 and following, has gathered various matters which pertain to the present subject. And in article 14 he treats of the Suffectan Champions under the year 399, the fifth of the emperor Honorius. But it is well to hear St. Augustine's letter 267 (otherwise 50) to the Suffectans, the reader being first advised, however, of what Baronius has under the said year 399, number 71, from letter 154 (otherwise 47) of the same holy Father: From which you understand, says the same Baronius, what moderation Augustine required of his own people at this time in abolishing the superstition of the heathen. Yet it was not everywhere so managed that the very material of which the idols had been made was restored to the heathen themselves: for who could have wrested it from the most rapacious hands of the soldiers?
[4] And number 72: Now at that time there occurred that mournful event in the Colony of Sufes, on the occasion of an image destroyed by the Christians that the heathen, having suffered the loss of their image of Hercules, snatching up arms against the Christians, butchered sixty of them: to whom St. Augustine then, reproaching them, briefly wrote this in the letter just cited, rebuking that tragic homicide, and setting before their eyes, on the occasion of this deed, the emptiness of the worship of the gods of the Gentiles. Let us now hear the words of the letter itself: The most notorious crime of your savagery and your unlooked-for cruelty shakes the earth and strikes heaven, so that in your streets and shrines blood gleams and homicide resounds. Among you the Roman laws lie buried, the terror of upright judgments is trodden underfoot. Of the emperors certainly there is no reverence nor fear: among you the innocent blood of brethren to the number of LX was shed; and if any man killed more, he was rewarded with praises, and held the chief place in your senate house. Come now, let us come to the principal cause. If you shall say it is your Hercules, we will restore him forthwith: metals are at hand, stones are not lacking, kinds of marble are to be had, an abundance of craftsmen is at your service.
[5] of Hercules: St. Augustine rebukes the deed Moreover, your god is carved with care, turned and adorned. We add even the red pigment which paints that blush, whereby your sacred vows may resound. For if you shall say he is your Hercules, we will club together our several coins and buy you a god from your own craftsman. Give back therefore the souls which your hand wrung out; and just as your Hercules is restored by us, so also let the souls of so many be restored by you. Tillemont, in a short note on article 14 cited above, says that it may be examined, in the matter of St. Augustine, that some will have it that his letter 267 is spurious. But since it was admitted as true and genuine by the Benedictine monks who published the works of the same holy Doctor, and reprinted among the rest, I do not see what
should compel one to stir up a suit against its most ancient possession. Hence I reject another marginal note in Castellanus, which he sets against the text of the Roman Martyrology rendered by him into French in his Universal Martyrology, saying that these Martyrs are not in the Carthaginian Calendar, but only in a single letter wrongly attributed to St. Augustine.
[6] in a letter which is his own: the time of the martyrdom. Does he then so roundly and as it were from the tripod condemn that letter as spurious without any proof? Tillemont indeed was more prudent here, who, in his account of St. Augustine, to which he deferred the examination of that letter, volume 13 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, article 34, takes to task a certain modern author who rejects that letter, which speaks of the sedition at Sufes, as supposititious, and says that he knows no other who holds this view, and that his censure does not seem to him so well founded as it is severe. And so I can by no means side with Castellanus in this matter; but in another point I have ground of complaint against him. For in the French text of his Roman Martyrology there are announced trois-cens bienheureux Martyrs, that is, three hundred blessed Martyrs, instead of sixty only, who are marked in the Roman Martyrology, as was said above. Concerning the time of the martyrdom nothing remarkable occurs. Tillemont, as was premised, fixes it in the year of Christ 399, as does Castellanus also; but Pagi under that year, number 13, says, About this year. Baronius we have given before. We, following the example of others, have woven that deed into the same year 399.