ON THE FORTY HOLY SOLDIER-MARTYRS AT ROME ON THE VIA LAVICANA.
About the year of Christ 262.
CommentaryThe Forty Soldier-Martyrs at Rome on the Via Lavicana (SS.)
From various sources.
[1] "The number forty," says St. Augustine (Tractate 17 on John), "is commended to us as sacred in a certain perfection." Wherefore, as other things of this number have been holy in ages past, so also the soldiers of Christ have very often won the laurel in groups of forty: as those of March 9 at Sebastea in Armenia, and those of January 13 at Rome. Concerning the latter, Usuard, the Roman Martyrology, Bellinus, Maurolycus, and others say: "At Rome on the Via Lavicana, the crowns of the forty holy soldiers, which under the Emperor Gallienus they deserved to receive for their confession of the true faith." The birthday of these Martyrs. The ancient Roman Martyrology, Bede, and Ado say: "At Rome on the Via Lavicana, the crowns of forty soldiers, under the Emperor Gallienus."
[2] Notker and the Bavarian manuscript of Bede read: "At Rome on the Via Lavicana, of Secundina, Corona, and forty soldiers under the Emperor Gallienus." The manuscript Martyrology of St. Jerome reads: "At Rome, of Secundus. On the Via Lavicana, the crowns of fifteen soldiers; and elsewhere, of Quosquonius, The same persons ambiguously recorded with others. of Eno." The Irish manuscript reads: "Of Corona, Serdus, and twenty-five others." The manuscript Florarium reads: "At Rome on the Via Lavicana, the crowns of forty soldiers, which under the Emperor Gallienus they deserved to receive for their confession of the true faith, in the year of salvation 263, the fifth year of the eighth persecution." Then, with the names of other Saints interposed: "At Rome, the passion of St. Quirio and of forty others under the Emperor Gallienus, in the year of salvation 263, the fifth year of the eighth persecution." From which one may ask: 1. Whether Secundus, or Secundina, or Secundinus, was a companion and sharer in the martyrdom of those forty. 2. Whether "Corona" might be a proper name. 3. Whether Quirio and Eno suffered at Rome or near Rome. 4. Whether there were twice forty. Until more is known, we shall separate Secundus; likewise Eno and Quirio; we shall take "corona" in its appellative sense, with most of the cited Martyrologies; and we shall omit the second group of forty.
[3] Nothing is reported by the ancients about the manner of their death. But Galesius writes thus: "At Rome on the Via Lavicana, of the forty holy Martyrs, The manner of death. who under the Emperor Gallienus were struck with the axe on account of their confession of the Christian faith." Petrus de Natalibus writes almost the same in book 2, chapter 72: "Forty soldiers passed from temporal military service to the soldiery of Christ. All of them, beheaded at Rome on the Via Lavicana under the Emperor Gallienus for their confession of the faith, deserved to receive crowns of martyrdom from the Lord, on the Ides of January, as Ado says."
[4] The time of their martyrdom. We have already said that the author of the manuscript Florarium places the date of their slaughter at the year of Christ 263, which was the 10th year of Gallienus — not the fifth of the eighth persecution, but rather the third after the cessation of the fierce persecution of Valerian, which among the ten is the eighth. But the German Martyrology records them as killed in the year 260. It is probable that this happened after Valerian was captured, since they are said without qualification to have been crowned under Gallienus. Valerian was captured by the Persians in the year 260. At which time Gallienus (as Orosius says, book 7, chapter 22), "terrified by so clear a judgement of God and moved by the wretched example of his colleague, restored peace to the churches with fearful reparation." Eusebius attests the same in book 7, chapter 12, where he cites a rescript of Gallienus ordering that sacred places formerly taken from the Christians be restored, and forbidding that they be troubled. But those slaughters of Saints were meanwhile perpetrated by the wickedness of governors, contrary to his will. Baronius treats of these matters in his Notes to the Martyrology and in volume 2 of the Annales, under the year 262, nos. 76 ff., and Galesius in his Notes to the Martyrology, and others.