ON S. RHODIPPUS, BISHOP OF LEONTINI IN SICILY.
ABOUT THE YEAR 314.
CommentaryS. Rhodippus, Bishop of Leontini in Sicily.
By I. B.
[1] Leontini is a city on the eastern coast of Sicily, also called Leontini, situated a few miles from the sea, formerly adorned with an episcopal see, now subject to the Bishop of Syracuse. The first Bishop of Leontini (whose name, at least, we have found) was S. Neophytus, formerly called Alexander, S. Neophytus, first Bishop of Leontini. who is venerated on the first of September. His mother S. Neophyta and his maternal aunt S. Isidora were crowned with martyrdom on the seventeenth of April, before he himself had embraced the faith of Christ. His wife S. Epiphane, herself also a Martyr, is venerated on the twelfth of May. Some years after the death of his wife, Alexander, named Neophytus in baptism by S. Agatho, Bishop of Lipari, was ordained Bishop of his native city, and having held this office for thirty-seven years, died about the year of Christ 296, as Rocchus Pirrus judges in his Notice of the Churches of Sicily, being over eighty years old.
[2] He was succeeded by S. Rhodippus, the brother of S. Epiphane, his wife. Concerning him the following is found in the Acts of SS. Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus, which we shall give on the tenth of May: After these things, Neophytus took with him certain pious men, S. Rhodippus, his successor, whom he knew to be fit for the priesthood — Rhodippus the brother of Epiphane his wife, Crispus, Palumbus, Philemon, a certain Isidorus from the village called Troila, and furthermore Aquila and Andronicus, and his servants and notaries: and they went out together from the Mesopolis of Leontini about the time of the barley harvest, and crossed over to the island of Lipari; and from there they reached Rome on the eighteenth of July. And shortly after: The Pope also ordained Palumbus a Presbyter, and Theodosius, Rhodippus, and Crispus as Deacons.
[3] Ordained Deacon at Rome: when did he die? Finally, after commemorating the death of S. Neophytus, the following is added: After him Rhodippus, the brother of Epiphane, was ordained Bishop, and he governed the episcopate piously for seventeen years. After him, Crispus. From this it follows that if he immediately succeeded Neophytus, he died about the year of Christ 313 or 314. Pirrus writes that he is publicly venerated on the second of February. On that day Octavius Caietanus, one of our own, in the Prospectus of his work on the Saints of Sicily, venerated on the second of February. has this: At Leontini, S. Rhodippus, Bishop and Confessor, under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Ferrarius lists him on the same day in his general Catalogue of Saints; but he errs when he writes in his Notes that he presided over the Church of Leontini at the time when the holy Martyrs Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus suffered. On the contrary, it is clear from the Acts of these Martyrs that Neophytus was then still a Gentile, serving as the Assessor of the Governor Tertyllus.
[4] The same Ferrarius has the following at the seventh of November: At Leontini in Sicily, the blessed Bishops Rhodippus and Lucianus. We treated S. Lucianus on the third of January: and perhaps on the seventh of November. although there appear to have been two Bishops of Leontini of that name; but Pirrus refers both to the same day, the third of January. Whether the ordination or some translation of one of them, together with S. Rhodippus, occurred on the seventh of November, we do not know.