ON THE HOLY DEACON MARTYRS PRIMUS AND DONATUS, AT THE FORTRESS OF LEMELESUM IN AFRICA.
AROUND THE YEAR 362.
CommentaryPrimus, Deacon Martyr at the fortress of Lemelesum in Africa (St.) Donatus, Deacon Martyr at the fortress of Lemelesum in Africa (St.)
By I. B.
[1] The Donatists (as every bloodthirsty heresy is, having been sown by him who was a murderer from the beginning) raged savagely against the servants of God in the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era. SS. Primus and Donatus the Deacons, Wherefore St. Augustine, in volume 2 of his Letters, Epistle 158, to Marcellinus, affirms that their sufferings ought to be glorious in the Church. For this reason, the names of the holy Deacons Primus and Donatus have rightly been entered in the tables of the Roman Martyrology, since it is established by the most weighty testimony of St. Optatus of Milevis that they were killed by the Donatists while defending the altar in the church.
[2] The time at which their murder was committed is explained by the same Optatus in book 2, a little past the middle: Then another Emperor followed, as is known to all, who, sharing in your sinister designs, from a servant of God became a minister
of the enemy, in the time of Julian the Apostate, attesting himself an Apostate by his own edicts. You begged him with prayers that you might be allowed to return. If you deny that you sent these prayers, we have read them. Nor did the one you petitioned present any difficulty: he ordered those to go, in accordance with his own wish, whom he understood would come with fury to disturb the peace. the Donatists recalled from exile, Blush, if there is any shame in you. Your liberty was restored by the same voice by which the temples of idols were ordered to be opened. Almost at the same moments your fury returned to Africa as the devil was released from his prisons. And you are not ashamed, you who at one time share common joys with the enemy?
[3] With what fury they then raged against the Church — whose leaders and chiefs, as Optatus had previously related, had been banished for their own deserts — the same Optatus explains in general terms: You came raving, you came enraged, tearing apart the members of the Church; subtle in seductions, savage in slaughter, provoking the children of peace to wars. and raging savagely, You made many exiles from their homes, coming with a hired band and invading the basilicas. Many of your number perpetrated bloody massacres in many places (which it would be tedious to name individually), and so atrocious that reports about such deeds were sent by the judges of that time. But the judgment of God intervened and came to pass, so that the Emperor who had long since ordered you to return — profane and sacrilegious man — should die, who at your instigation had already sent or was arranging to send a persecution. Slaughter was carried out against the Catholics in the aforesaid places.
[4] Then Optatus proceeds to their specific deeds: Remember in each place what your incursions were. Were not Felix of Zabi, Januarius of Flumenpiscis, and others among your number, who ran with all speed to the fortress of Lemelesum? When they saw the basilica closed against their importunity, they ordered their companions who were present to climb the roofs, strip the tiles, and hurl them down. Their commands were carried out without delay; and when Catholic Deacons were defending the altar, many were bloodied by the tiles; two were killed — Primus, son of Januarius, killed while defending the altar, and Donatus, son of Ninus — while your above-mentioned fellow bishops urged them on and were present. So that without doubt it was said of you: Their feet are swift to shed blood. Psalm 13 Concerning this matter, Primosus, the Catholic Bishop of the above-mentioned place, complained at your council held at the city of Theveste; and you listened to his complaints with studied indifference.
[5] The two Donatist bishops named here, in the edition of Optatus prepared by Francis Baldwin and in the later one by Gabriel d'Albaspine, are written as Felix of Diabensis and Januarius of Flamen Pistensis. D'Albaspine notes that the bishop is correctly called the Flamen Pistensis. But there is nowhere any mention of a bishopric of Diabensis or Pistensis. Zabi and Flumenpiscis, cities of Africa, Zabi and Flumenpiscis are cities of Mauretania Sitifensis according to Charles de Saint-Paul in his Sacred Geography of Africa. And in the Record of Africa published by our Sirmond, among the Catholic bishops summoned to Carthage in the sixth year of Huneric, there are Victor of Flumenpiscis and Possessor of Zabi.
[6] as also Lemelefi In the same Mauretania Sitifensis there was the episcopal city of Lemelefi, and Jacob, Bishop of Lemelefi, appears in the cited Record of Sirmond. Whether, however, the fortress of Lemelesum, where there was both a basilica and several deacons, was itself an episcopal see, or whether it was in another city called Lemelefi within whose district the fortress was situated, we have not determined. and Theveste. The city of Theveste named here, elsewhere incorrectly called Rheveste, seems to be Theveste, a city of Numidia.