Acta Sanctorum

Mavilus

4 January · commentary
Latin source: Heiligenlexikon
St. Mavilus, a martyr of Hadrumetum in North Africa, condemned to the beasts under the Governor Scapula during the persecution of Emperor Severus around 203. Tertullian references his death in his address to Scapula, treating it as a provocation of divine wrath against the persecutors. 3rd century

ON ST. MAVILUS, MARTYR, AT HADRUMETUM IN AFRICA.

Commentary

Around the Year 203.

Mavilus, Martyr at Hadrumetum in Africa (St.)

From various sources.

The Roman Martyrology: "At Hadrumetum in Africa, the Commemoration of St. Mavilus the Martyr, who in the persecution of the Emperor Severus was condemned to the beasts by the most savage Governor Scapula and received the crown of martyrdom." Concerning him, Tertullian, in his book To Scapula, chapter 3, writes: "We wish for you that it had been a warning only, that when you had condemned to the beasts Mavilus of Hadrumetum (some manuscripts read 'Mavilius,' as Pamelius notes), this calamity immediately followed, and now from the same cause there is an 'appeal of blood'"—that is, as James Pamelius and our Joannes Ludovicus Lacerda explain, a persecution aroused from this beginning. But the explanation of Baronius pleases me more, who says it signifies the calamities threatened against Africa, as though by them the blood unjustly shed by the Governor was being called for and demanded back. See Baronius at greater length, vol. 2, year 203, numbers 5 ff.