Julian

ON ST. JULIAN, MARTYR.

Julian, Martyr (St.)

I. B.

[1] Peter de Natalibus, book 11, chapter 130, number 63, seems to have been the first to attribute the Martyr Julian to the city of Lyon (no small glory, if true), St. Julian the Martyr is venerated on February 13, writing thus: Stephen the Bishop and Julian, Martyrs, suffered at Lyon on the same day. Galesinius followed him in part; for concerning Stephen he has this: Likewise at Lyon, of St. Stephen, Bishop and Confessor. And before that: At Lyon, of St. Julian the Martyr, did he suffer at Lyon? whose brave and religious deeds are recorded in the Ecclesiastical annals. He cites in his Notes a manuscript codex and the records of the Church of Lyon, which records were certainly unknown to Theophilus Raynaud when he was compiling his Index of the Saints of Lyon, so that he could not even ascertain at what time Julian died. Nor did Saussaius discover more; yet he conjectures that he was killed not by heretics or by wicked men in Christian times, but when the worship of idols was flourishing, and he proclaims the following about him: At Lyon, of St. Julian the Martyr, who was fiercely harassed to be drawn from the worship of Christ to the impiety of idols; since he showed himself stronger in the assertion of the faith, by dying he raised an eternal monument to his piety and patience. But these things could be said of anyone killed by pagans. Baronius also inscribed the name of Julian in the Roman Martyrology thus: At Lyon, of St. Julian the Martyr.

[2] The older Martyrologies, especially the manuscripts, either designate no place in which he fought his combat, or at least one different from Lyon. Thus the manuscript of the Church of St. Lambert at Liege: On this day, the passion of St. Julian. The Martyrology of Usuard, printed at Lubeck in the year 1475: At Lyon, the birthday of St. Stephen. And of St. Julian. From a similar codex the error seems to have arisen that, with the punctuation worn away, both were assigned to Lyon. Maurolycus thus separates the two: at Nicomedia? At Lyon, of St. Stephen the Bishop, and of Julian at Nicomedia, Martyrs. The very ancient manuscripts of the monasteries of St. Cyriacus at Rome, St. Martin at Tournai, and Laetium: At Nicomedia, the passion of St. Julian the Martyr. Hermann Greuen, the manuscript Martyrology of the Church of Aachen, the manuscript Florarium, the Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490, and very many manuscript Martyrologies of Belgian churches, marked with the name of Usuard, have the same.

[3] The manuscript of St. Jerome, or the most ancient Roman one, here records not Julian but Juliana of Nicomedia, for it reads thus: At Nicomedia, the passion of St. Juliana, Virgin. But on February 16, on which day she is inscribed in the Roman calendar, or Juliana the Virgin? the same manuscript: In Campania, at Cumae, the birthday of Juliana. As if she were either a different person, or if one and the same, suffered on the Ides and was afterward translated to Cumae on the 16th. The very ancient manuscript of the monastery of Reichenau records Julian here, whom others call Tullianus, or if they call him Julian, place him as having suffered at least the day before at Alexandria; for it reads thus: At Alexandria, of Julian, Cyriacus, and Ammonius. But Wandelbert judged that Julian, the spouse of St. Basilissa the Virgin, has been venerated on this day for so many centuries already, in these words:

On the Ides, Julian ascends to ethereal honor, or the Julian of January 9? His blessed Spouse joined her exultant soul to his in heaven.

We gave their Acts on January 9. From this at least it is clear that before the ninth century from the birth of Christ, in which Wandelbert of Prum lived, a monk in the diocese of Trier, some Julian, whoever he may finally be, obtained a famous name in the calendar of the Church on this day.

[4] In the old Missal of Tournai and the ancient Breviary of Brussels, St. Julian the Martyr is celebrated on this day with a proper Mass and an Office of three Lessons; or the Hospitaller, who is on January 29? as also in the ancient Breviary of the Church of Antwerp. But in this it seems to deal with St. Julian the Hospitaller; yet why he is called a Martyr is unknown to us. The Collect reads thus: "O God, who made blessed Julian, your pious Martyr, renowned for the grace of hospitality, grant, we pray, that by his merits and intercession you may deign to lead us, your servants, to a fitting and acceptable abode before the Divine Majesty. Through our Lord." We treated of St. Julian the Hospitaller on January 29; some also venerate him on February 12, others on August 31.