Anterus

ON ST. ANTERUS, POPE AND MARTYR.

A.D. 236.

Anterus, Pope and Martyr at Rome (St.)

Pope Anterus, who is also called Antherus, Anterus, and Antherius by others, was long ago enrolled in the sacred calendar, as is evident from the old Roman Martyrology, Bede, Usuard, Ado, Bellinus, Maurolycus, and the rest.

[2] Concerning him the book on the Roman Pontiffs has this: Anterus, a Greek by birth, son of Romulus, sat for twelve years (others delete the number of years), one month, and twelve days. He was crowned with martyrdom. He lived in the time of the consuls Maximinus and Africanus. He diligently sought out the acts of the martyrs from the Notaries and stored them in the Church; on account of which he was crowned with martyrdom by *Maximus the Prefect. He performed one ordination in the month of December, of one bishop. (The codex of Baronius adds: at Fundi in Campania.) He was buried in the cemetery of Callistus, on the Via Appia, on the 3rd of the Nones of January; and the see was vacant for thirteen days. Philippus Ferrarius, in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, reports that he was a native of Petelia, a maritime city of Magna Graecia. Native of the city of Petelia.

[3] Moreover, concerning the Acts of the Martyrs, which were customarily recorded, Baronius has the following in volume 2, year 238, no. 2. The Acts of the Martyrs were customarily recorded by seven Notaries. It was first arranged with great diligence by Pope Clement that the deeds of the martyrs should be written down by seven Notaries, divided among the regions of the City. Then Pope Fabian, who succeeded Anterus, of whom we are speaking, in order to provide even more carefully for the truth of the historical record, appointed seven Subdeacons over the seven Notaries assigned to this work, who would receive the complete Acts of the Martyrs. Moreover, we consider it to have been the task of the Notaries not only to describe the very Acts themselves — namely, the tortures and the cruel and often-repeated torments — but also to commit to record whatever the same holy martyrs had said while they were being captured and publicly tortured, and whatever they had spoken as they were led to their punishments.

[4] Those things, however, which were said within the barriers, behind a drawn curtain, before the judges, when the case concerning them was being heard, and when they were questioned — it was the duty of the public Recorders to commit all of these to writing Other records were purchased from the Recorders and to enter them among the public Acts. When these proceedings took place in the provinces, we find them called Proconsularia by Augustine and others. Moreover, these very records, or rather copies of them, used to be purchased by Christians with collected money, and diligently preserved among the Acts of the Martyrs. But what was done or said with the martyrs outside the barriers was noted down by the Church's Notaries, with great caution employed, in the customary shorthand on tablets as quickly as possible. Thus far Baronius. Formerly St. Anterus was venerated with a simple feast, as we have said above.

* Baronius reads Maximinus.