ON THE HOLY MARTYRS PROCULUS, EPHEBUS, AND APOLLONIUS, AT INTERAMNA IN UMBRIA.
AROUND THE YEAR 273.
G. H.
Commentary
Proculus, Martyr, at Interamna in Umbria (St.) Ephebus, Martyr, at Interamna in Umbria (St.) Apollonius, Martyr, at Interamna in Umbria (St.)
[1] The names, homeland, manner of life, conversion to the faith of Christ, and finally the death undergone for the confession of that same faith of these Martyrs are indicated in the Acts of St. Valentine, Bishop of Interamna in Umbria, published by us on the fourteenth of February from various manuscript codices and from Mombritius. We shall transfer a few details here. They are called Proculus, Ephebus, and Apollonius. Two of these names are written everywhere in the same manner. But Ephebus appears in other sources as Ephibus, Esibus, Esybus, and Phebus. They were nobles, born at Athens, and scholarly men among the Greeks; desiring Latin studies, they were lodged in the city of Rome with their fellow citizen Crato, an orator skilled in both languages, and were nourished by both his teaching and his hospitality.
[2] Crato had a son named Chaeremon, a young scholar and their fellow student, who fell into such an illness that, with his back bent, he remained with his head between his knees. St. Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, was summoned; an agreement was made to embrace the faith of Christ if Chaeremon were healed. Valentine prayed, shut in a chamber, and obtained his health. Then Crato, as the Acts relate, together with his wife and all his household, believed and was baptized; their martyrdom is celebrated on the fifteenth of February. Proculus, Ephebus, and Apollonius, casting aside the study of human wisdom, devoted themselves to the Lord in such a way that they read absolutely nothing further of human literature; but, converted to the Lord, they gave themselves to spiritual studies under a Teacher whose not only words but also deeds were proved to be wonderful. Meanwhile, through them a multitude of scholars flowed to Christ, so that Abundius, son of the Prefect of the City, was moved in his soul and with a public voice proclaimed himself a servant of Christ with complete fullness of faith.
[3] St. Valentine was then captured and beheaded in prison. Proculus, Ephebus, and Apollonius took his body and transferred it by a nighttime journey to their church in the city of Interamna, and there, in a plot of land purchased in the suburb, not far from the same city, they gave it a most honorable burial. While they continued in daily vigils in the praises of God, they were seized by the Gentiles and handed over to the custody of the Consular Leontius. Leontius, recognizing that Proculus, Ephebus, and Apollonius had many admirers among the people whom they knew, and fearing lest they be violently taken from him by the populace, ordered them to be brought before his tribunal in the middle of the night. When he saw that they could be neither deceived by blandishments nor broken by torturers, he ordered them to undergo the capital sentence. He himself immediately fled with his retinue, and did not allow it to be known where he had gone. Then all the people mourned indeed at their death, but rejoiced at their martyrdom. So say the Acts of St. Valentine. The one who is called "Consular Leontius" in those Acts is called Lucinius and Licinius in many manuscripts, and Leonicus by Ferrarius.
[4] Furthermore, the same Acts add that the holy Martyrs were buried by St. Abundius not far from the body of St. Valentine. Jacobillus in their Life asserts that this Abundius is the one whom we said above flowed to Christ through them with a multitude of scholars, and was the son of Furius Placidus, Prefect of the City of Rome — or rather, as the Acts transmit, "furiosi Placidi" (the furious Placidus), by whose order St. Valentine was beheaded. Moreover, it seems more likely that they suffered together with St. Valentine during the persecution of the Emperor Aurelian, around the year 273.
[5] In the year 1605, two lead coffins were discovered, in one of which was contained the body of St. Valentine the Bishop, and in the other, placed beneath the first, the bones of these three Martyrs, which, although they lay beside a stream, had nevertheless — by a particular favor of God — remained intimately joined together. First the body of St. Valentine was transferred with solemn pomp by the clergy and people; then the sacred relics of these Martyrs, some days later, were by decree of the Bishops brought to the Cathedral church, to the body of St. Valentine deposited there. When those who were secretly carrying the relics were already approaching the sacred building, and those who were in the church were not aware of the treasure being brought, a certain woman tormented by a demon suddenly cried out: "Now Proculus, Ephebus, and Apollonius are coming here!" and appeared to be greatly tormented. The bystanders were amazed, and when they saw the sacred pledges brought into the church, they gave thanks to God. For some time the relics lay hidden under the main altar, until a new church in honor of St. Valentine was built by the Discalced Carmelites, to which they were transferred with great solemnity and are preserved with the highest veneration under the main altar.
[6] In the Acts of St. Valentine, the birthday of his companions is not specified; hence in most Martyrologies their memory is celebrated also on the fourteenth of February, the day on which St. Valentine is believed to have died. Bede, Ado, Rabanus, Notker, the manuscript Martyrologies of St. Cyriacus, the Trier manuscript of St. Maximinus, the Tournai manuscript of St. Martin, the Liessies and Aachen manuscripts adorn them with a lengthy eulogy drawn from the Acts already cited, which we also reported on the fourteenth of February. In the Roman Martyrology, after the entry on St. Valentine, the following is added separately about his companions: "In the same place, of Sts. Proculus, Ephebus, and Apollonius, who, while keeping vigil at the body of St. Valentine, were arrested by order of the Consular Leontius and slain by the sword." However, the people of Interamna, the fourteenth of February being dedicated to the solemn veneration of St. Valentine, honor the others on the sixteenth of the same month, and with the rite they call "double." Ferrarius in the general Catalogue records on this day: "At Interamna in Umbria, of the holy Martyrs Proculus, Ephebus, and Apollonius." The same author in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy presents a brief epitome of their life and martyrdom. Jacobillus examines each point more carefully in his book on the Saints of Umbria, from which we have drawn and described the account of the Translation of the Relics.