ON THE HOLY MARTYRS SATURNINUS, THEOPHILUS, AND REVOCATA.
CommentarySaturninus, Martyr (Saint) Theophilus, Martyr (Saint) Revocata, Martyr (Saint)
J. B.
[1] The Acts of these Martyrs have perished, as those of innumerable others, or at any rate still lie hidden. Many manuscript Martyrologies mention them, The names of these Saints in the Martyrologies. most bearing the name of Usuard (with the Parisian copies excepted), as well as printed editions published at Lubeck in 1475 and at Cologne in 1490, likewise Bellinus, the Florarium, Maurolycus, and others: On this same day, of the holy Martyrs Saturninus, Theophilus, and Retrocata. Petrus de Natalibus also records them, book 11, chapter 130, number 52. But the modern Roman Martyrology, Molanus and Hermannus Greuen in their additions to Usuard, and Galesinius variously expressed. have Revocatus in place of Revocata; Maurolycus has Theophila for Theophilus; the manuscript of the monastery of Alberga has Theopholus. The manuscript of St. Jerome records two Saturnini, but everything confusedly: In Achia (I think Achaia should be read) of Saturninus. Elsewhere, of Revocata. Of Dorothea, of Theophilus Scholasticus. At Syracuse, the passion of St. Lucy the Virgin. Elsewhere, of Antholianus, of Saturninus. An ancient manuscript of the Church of St. Mary ad Gradus at Cologne also assigns them to Achaia, in these words: whether they suffered in Achaia, In Achaia, the birthday of Saints Revocata and Theophilus — omitting Saturninus, whom alone the Martyrology of Aachen mentions, but with no place assigned. Galesinius writes that they suffered at Rome; but it is customary with that author, when transferring Saints from the Greek Menaea into his Martyrology, to add that they suffered in Greece if no place is assigned, or at Rome if the entry comes from the Roman Martyrology.
[2] The Chronicle of Spain published under the name of Flavius Dexter records them twice, but at different places and times; for at the year of Christ 260, number 2, it has the following: At Viana in Gallaecia, near the city of Tuy, whether at Viana, the holy Martyrs Theophilus, Saturninus, and Revocata the Virgin suffered under Julius Minervius, in the persecution of the Emperor Valerian, which is the seventh — the same as that under Decius; while the sixth was that under Maximinus Caesar, in the year from the Lord's birth 239. There does indeed exist in Lusitania a maritime city called Viana near the mouth of the river Limia, and near it — as Franciscus Bivarius, the commentator on Dexter, writes — to the north, on a hill, now a city in Lusitania; the ruins of the ancient Viana are visible. It is more probable that this Viana is the one designated here by the author of the Chronicle than the other Viana on the river Bibei in Gallaecia, which Licentiatus Molina mentions; for that maritime Viana is closer to the city of Tuy, and it was formerly within Gallaecia, whose boundaries are now more narrow. Prudentius Sandoval in his book on the Bishops of Tuy assigns the said Martyrs to this same Viana, as does our Antonius Vasconcellius in his Description of the Kingdom of Lusitania, page 452; likewise Ludovicus dos Anjos on women renowned for holiness in Lusitania, and Georgius Cardosus in the Hagiology of Lusitania.
[3] The same Chronicle of Dexter, at the year of Christ 300, Commentary 2, number 20, has the following: whether in the town of Aviles in Asturias? At Argenteola among the Asturians, the holy Martyrs of Christ — Saturninus, Theophilus, and Revocata — suffered for Christ. Bivarius warns, just as he did regarding the previous passage, and Joannes Tamayus de Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology, that these are treated in the Roman Martyrology and in the Catalogue of Petrus de Natalibus; yet they maintain that these are different from the former, as is demonstrated by the difference of city and times. Concerning neither group do we have anything that we can pronounce with certainty. The same Bivarius says that Argenteola is now called Aviles; others say Medules; Tamayus says it is not clear. Was St. Revocata a Virgin?
[4] Following the authority of Dexter, our Laherius in his Menology of Virgins calls St. Revocata a Virgin and Martyr, to whom the previously cited Martyrologies neither attribute nor deny the former crown.