CONCERNING THE HOLY ALEXANDRIAN MARTYRS,
PRIESTS, DEACONS, AND LAYPEOPLE, WHO, WHILE MINISTERING TO THOSE SUFFERING FROM THE PLAGUE, WERE THEMSELVES ALSO KILLED BY THE SAME
IN THE YEAR 261.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Priests, of Alexandria, who died while ministering to those suffering from the plague (Saints). Deacons, of Alexandria, who died while ministering to those suffering from the plague (Saints). Others of Alexandria, who died while ministering to those suffering from the plague.
I. B.
[1] Their memory has been consecrated in the tables of the Roman Martyrology for the 28th day of February in this manner: There also (at Alexandria) the commemoration of the holy Priests, Deacons, and very many others, These Saints inscribed in the Martyrology who, when a most cruel plague raged in the time of the Emperor Valerian, while ministering to the sick, most willingly met death: whom the devout faith of the pious has been accustomed to venerate as Martyrs. John Molanus, Doctor of Theology at the University of Louvain, in his Medical-Ecclesiastical Diary at this day, weighs that eulogy thus: This passage is very memorable for all those as an example for others who, in time of pestilence, dutifully and with a view to piety, assist the sick either spiritually or corporally. Baronius in volume 2 of his Annals at the year 263, after commemorating the plague that then raged at Alexandria and the heroic deed of these Christians full of charity, at number 17 concludes the narrative thus: Moreover, so illustrious did their memory remain, those who for the sake of fraternal charity most willingly met death, that an anniversary celebration of them all, to be recalled, was inscribed in the Ecclesiastical tables for the day before the Kalends of March. We have not yet, however, found their memory recorded in any calendar except the Roman one, interpolated in the preceding century.
[2] Various commentaries have recently been written by learned men in which this martyrdom of charity is discussed; some asserting that those who, by ministering to the sick, contracted the plague and met death, are truly Martyrs; others strenuously opposing this. The former acknowledge, however, that until the Church has examined the cause and manner of their death and rendered a judgment, whether they are to be considered true Martyrs? it is not permissible to honor them with public veneration: yet it would be fair that, when after an investigation conducted according to the rules of Ecclesiastical discipline, it shall have been established that their orthodox faith, their charity toward God, the cause of the ministry they undertook, and their Christian death in it are verified, they be pronounced Martyrs; since there can be no greater love than for someone to lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
[3] Indeed, if we wish to think of God in goodness, we must acknowledge that it is foreign to His infinite generosity Death for God's sake has never been to anyone's detriment to allow any to lose their life for His sake, and the opportunity to accumulate further good deeds thereafter, without rewarding them with an illustrious prize. Whether, however, grace and glory are bestowed on those who die in this way by the very act, so to speak, or the endurance of death, and not according to the degree and intention of their charity, as happens with those who, for the defense of faith, justice, chastity, or another Christian virtue, received death inflicted by men with a mind prepared by heavenly inspiration -- let others debate. It is not our purpose or leisure to treat this matter more extensively here. We shall only say at what time and for what reason that plague invaded Alexandria, in which that magnanimous charity of the Christians shone forth.
[4] The causes of evils are the sins of mortals: both the common sin of all, when all or most contaminate themselves promiscuously, having set aside the fear of God; Public evils on account of the crimes of Princes and especially that of Princes and magistrates, whose crimes are also avenged upon the subject peoples, all the more severely as they too have entered more deeply into their perverse footsteps. The impiety of Valerian, the deadly illusions of the magical art, and his monstrous cruelty against the Christians provided the occasion for the immense evils thus on account of Valerian's with which the Roman Empire was afflicted in the times of Gallienus, in the year 260 and afterward. under Gallienus, although milder, various calamities Otherwise, when Valerian had been captured by Sapor, King of the Persians, his son Gallienus, after he obtained sole supreme power, began to act more mildly and moderately toward our people (as Rufinus writes in book 7, chapter 17): and having issued decrees, he ordered that punishments be suspended and persecutions cease, and permitted each person to worship the Divine as he sees fit. But the pagans themselves clashed among themselves in fierce wars, both in other provinces and especially in Egypt near Alexandria: whence arose famine and pestilence. Concerning the war, the same Rufinus writes in chapter 18 thus: There was tumult at Alexandria then But at Alexandria, even if there were no external cause of evil, because the race of men is fierce, seditious, and always restless, they stirred up civil commotions and wars among themselves, not for any merit of virtue or for defense, but for the slaughter and destruction of citizens.
[5] Trebellius Pollio (also cited by Baronius) explains this more clearly in the Thirty Tyrants, number 21, writing thus: by a factious populace And this is habitual for the Egyptian people, that even when mad and insane, from the most trivial causes they are led to the greatest dangers to the state. Often on account of neglected greetings, a place not given at the baths, meat and vegetables confiscated, and servile shoes, and other such things, for a trivial matter they have gone so far as to the utmost danger of sedition to the state, so that armies had to be armed against them. Therefore, with their habitual frenzy, when one day a certain servant of a Curator who was then governing Alexandria had been beaten by a soldier because he said his sandals were better than the soldier's's; a mob gathered and came in a threatening manner to the house of Aemilianus the Duke, Aemilianus the Duke assumes imperial power in Egypt and pursued him with every instrument and fury of sedition: he was struck with stones, attacked with iron: nor did any weapon of sedition fail to appear. For which reason, compelled, Aemilianus assumed imperial power, since he knew he was going to perish anyway. The Egyptian army consented to him, especially out of hatred for Gallienus. Nor was his vigor in governing the state lacking: for he traversed the Thebaid and all of Egypt, and as far as he could, drove back the barbarian nations with firm authority. Finally, he was called Alexander or Alexandrinus (for that too is uncertain) on the merit of his virtues. And when he was preparing an expedition against the Indians, Theodotus the Duke was sent, at Gallienus's command, and he paid the penalty. The same Trebellius treats of Aemilianus in the Two Gallieni, writing thus: At the same time Aemilianus assumed imperial power in Egypt: whence arose famine having seized the granaries, he afflicted many towns with the evil of famine. But Theodotus, the Duke of Gallienus, after a battle, captured him and sent him alive to the Emperor Gallienus. For Egypt had been given to Aemilianus by the soldiers of the Transthebaid, since Gallienus persisted in luxury and depravity.
[6] This was the occasion of the civil war and famine. Eusebius treats of these matters at length in book 7 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapters 16 and 17, from the epistles of St. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, written at that time to various persons, and especially to Hierax, Bishop of Egypt. Rufinus treats the matter more briefly in book 7, chapters 19 and following, and his narrative will suffice for our purpose. He reports, he says, in his epistles, Dionysius records that the city was so devastated and destroyed by its own citizens, that that city which, from the dense crowding of its populace, could scarcely provide those departing with space to walk, had now come to such a pass Alexandria exhausted by plague that to see a person in the streets was very rare: that all the streets ran with the blood of citizens, were covered with corpses, and those who survived were not even sufficient for burying them. Whence also, after the fury of war and the devastation of the sword, a pestilence arose from the corruption of the air caused by the stench of corpses: so that if anyone had survived the sword, the same disease consumed them.
[7] Then chapter 20: The same Dionysius wrote about these things in a paschal letter, which is customarily read solemnly every year, in these words: To other men perhaps this may not seem to be a time of festivity, since mourning is everywhere and bitter lamentation fills all the streets with noise; groans and wailing are in every house because of the multitude of the dying. For as it is recorded of the firstborn of the Egyptians of old, so now an immense cry is raised everywhere. For there is no house, as it is written, in which there is not someone dead therein. Exodus 12:30 For first they themselves slew with their own hands the greatest and best part of the people, Christians, the greatest part of the people, previously slain for the faith by persecuting the Saints; the second part was carried off by civil wars; and the part that survived is now being consumed by the pestilent sickness. But we did not cease from our festivity even during the persecutions, when we were being slaughtered; nor can any solemnity ever be impeded for us, who are commanded to rejoice in tribulation. 1 Peter 4:13 Therefore every place, whatever was chosen by tyrants for our punishment, whether it was a field or a desert, or islands or a prison, could not impede our solemnity. The most joyful solemnity of all was that of the blessed Martyrs, who celebrated the Passover with the holy Angels in heaven. another part consumed by war After this, our persecutors turned their hands and weapons against themselves. But not even so were the feasts of our people disturbed. This pestilent disease and terrible plague followed: but to them it was far more terrible and grave, and by plague whom no hope of the future sustains. But for us all these things are regarded as exercises of virtue and tests of faith. For although the disease invaded the pagans more densely and fiercely than our people, it was nevertheless not entirely kept away from our own.
[8] Finally, Dionysius himself, as cited by Eusebius, extols the admirable charity of the Saints whose memory is recalled today. We give it from Christopherson's translation: Very many of our brethren were inflamed with so immense an ardor of charity and fraternal benevolence that, by no means sparing their own lives, but firmly cleaving to one another, they would diligently visit those oppressed by illness, with no care or precaution for themselves, Christians help their own people stricken by the plague assiduously serve them, tend them for the love of Christ, and depart from life together with them, most willingly infected by the contagion of others, even, as it were, drawing the disease from their neighbors to themselves, and of their own accord kindly alleviating the sorrows of others. Many likewise, while attending to others who were sick and restoring their strength, themselves, diverting the death of others to themselves, lost their lives: and they fulfilled in reality that saying which is commonly spoken and which alone seems to befit true benevolence, namely that each one should depart this life for his friends, and make himself, so to speak, an offscouring for their sake. From among the brethren, therefore, those who were easily the most outstanding in virtue met death in this manner: of whom some were Priests, others Deacons, especially Priests, Deacons, and other pious men and some from the laity were much commended on account of their virtue: so that this kind of death, which was undertaken on account of extraordinary piety and robust faith, seemed to fall nothing short of the splendor of martyrdom. Indeed, they were not reluctant to receive the bodies of the Saints with upturned and outstretched hands, to place them in their laps, to close their eyes, to shut their mouths, to carry the corpses on their shoulders, to adorn them fittingly, to cling to them, to embrace them lovingly, to wash them carefully, and to wrap them in funeral linen: they died serving in that ministry and those who survived shortly afterward obtained similar services performed for themselves, because they had followed the same path of death that those who went before them had trodden.
[9] But these last words seem to have been expressed less aptly. In the Greek it is: "Shortly afterward they obtained the same, as those who were left always followed in the footsteps of those who had gone before them." Moreover, those words by which this deed of theirs is compared to martyrdom have been faithfully translated; for the Greek reads: "so that this form of death, arising from great piety and strong faith, seemed to differ nothing from martyrdom." The services which the Priests then rendered to the sick seem to have been chiefly spiritual; what services did the Priests render to the sick? namely, to prepare their souls for rightly meeting death, and to administer the Sacraments that such necessity requires: while the Deacons fortified them with the Eucharist after they had previously been absolved in confession by the Priests: and the Laity principally cared for the bodies. Although I would not think that the former also neglected the care of bodies, when circumstances and time permitted. The epistle of St. Dionysius, in the very same words in which it appears in Eusebius, is recited by Nicephorus Callistus, book 6, chapter 20. Dionysius himself died afterward in the twelfth year of Gallienus, the year 264 of Christ, and is venerated on November 17.