Marcellus

ON ST. MARCELLUS, POPE AND MARTYR.

ABOUT THE YEAR 309.

Marcellus, Pope and Martyr (St.)

From various sources.

[1] Certain Greek writers, deceived by the similarity of the names, considered Marcellinus and Marcellus to be one and the same person, just as they did Cletus and Anacletus. All Latin writers disagree and hold them to be distinct. Marcellinus is venerated on the 26th of April, Marcellus on the 16th of January; and on this day Usuard celebrates him thus: At Rome, on the Salarian Way, the feast of St. Marcellus the Pope, who, for the defense of the Catholic faith, was first beaten with cudgels by order of the tyrant Maximinus, then assigned with public custody to the service of animals, and after many years of serving there, The feast of St. Marcellus on the 16th of January, clothed in a garment of haircloth, died. The Roman Martyrology says the same, except that it states Marcellus suffered under Maxentius; but Molanus in his Additions to Usuard, Bellini, and many manuscripts say under Maximian. Also treating of Marcellus on this day are the Venerable Bede, Ado, Rabanus, Notker, Maurolycus, Galesini, Felicius, Ghinius, and others: since the eulogies of each are drawn from his Acts or from the book on the Roman Pontiffs, it serves no purpose to give them here. The manuscript Martyrology of St. Jerome: At Rome, on the Salarian Way, in the cemetery of Priscilla, the burial of St. Marcellus the Bishop. Various ancient manuscripts: At Rome, Marcellus the Pope; some add, Martyr; one very ancient Hibernian manuscript adds, and Confessor, erroneously, since he perished in the labors imposed upon him by the tyrant as a torment. Wandalbert:

The seventh day after the tenth shines with the merits and name Of Marcellus, Martyr and Supreme Pontiff.

In three ancient Martyrologies, St. Marcellus is cited on the 4th of October; whether he was elected, commemoration on the 4th of October, consecrated, killed, or translated on that day is not reported; nor do we conjecture. Bede the Venerable thus: At Rome, Marcellus the Pope. Rabanus: At Rome, Marcellus the Bishop. The manuscript of St. Jerome: The 4th day before the Nones of October. At Rome, Balbina. Marcellus the Bishop.

[2] Ancient Acts, We have collated his Acts, which Molanus considers to have been written by Notaries of the Roman Church, with the ancient manuscripts of St. Martin and St. Maximin at Trier, St. Omer, St. Mary de Ripatorio, and many others. They need correction, as we shall say, because their first part pertains to St. Marcellinus. The same Acts, together with the history of the finding of his relics, were written by Ursio, Abbot of Hautmont in Belgium, others by Ursio, who lived nearly six hundred years ago. This account of his was presented to us by the ancient codices of the monasteries of Hautmont, St. Ghislain, and Clairmarais. We shall first set forth what the booklet on the Roman Pontiffs says, which also states regarding Marcellinus: Blessed Marcellinus, as he went forth to his passion, adjured Marcellus the Priest not to carry out the decrees of Diocletian. He buries the bodies of Saints. And after this was done, the holy bodies (of Marcellinus, Claudius, Cyrinus, Antoninus) lay in the street as an example to Christians for thirty-six days, by order of Diocletian; and then Marcellus the Priest, together with Priests and Deacons, gathered the bodies by night with hymns, and buried them on the Salarian Way in the cemetery of Priscilla, etc.

[3] The duration of the pontificate of Marcellus cannot be determined with complete clarity, because in the booklet on the Roman Pontiffs attributed to Damasus, not only are the numbers of years, months, and days during which each of the ancient Pontiffs held office, or during which the See was vacant, corrupted How long he sat in office, and inconsistent across different copies; but even the names of the Consuls are confused. Concerning Marcellus, it seems possible to establish the following. St. Marcellinus was killed in the year 304, in the final days of Diocletian and Maximian. After that the See was vacant for some time, not seven years as the cited booklet says, but for some months. Marcellus was then created in the early days of Galerius Maximianus and Constantius Chlorus. All assign to him five years and some months, so that he must have reached the year 310, or at least 309, as Baronius holds, who judges that Maxentius was Consul in both of those years, but that after his name and that of his son Romulus had been erased, only P. C. X. & VII. was inscribed in the records, that is, after the tenth consulship of Herculeus and the seventh of Galerius.

[4] His letters. There are extant two letters of Marcellus, one to the Bishops of the province of Antioch, the other to the tyrant Maxentius; from which Gratian transferred certain passages into his Decree. But whether they are of entirely unquestioned authenticity, let others investigate. Certainly they are not assigned to the proper Consuls, and the matters written in the latter are not well coherent, as Baronius acknowledges at the year 308, number 24, whence he judges that that letter received some addition from an external source.

[5] Octavius Panciroli in the book he entitled Hidden Treasures of the Holy City, treating of the seventh church of the third region, which is that of St. Marcellus, testifies that the body of St. Marcellus is preserved there in the high altar together with the body of St. Phocas, Relics in various places: of whom we shall treat on the 5th of March. Antonio Vincenzo Domenec in his history of the Saints of Catalonia under the 11th of August writes that in the parish church near the monastery called Arles, in the diocese of Elne, the body of Pope St. Marcellus is extant together with other bodies of Saints, but not complete. The anonymous author of the origins of the monastery of Windberg in volume 6 of Canisius's Antiquae Lectiones includes among other relics of Saints those of Pope and Martyr St. Marcellus. The monks of Hautmont near the town of Maubeuge on the river Sambre in Belgium boast that they have possessed the body of the same holy Pontiff for about a thousand years.

[6] When the relics were translated. It was first buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian Way: when it was translated into the City is not established. Panciroli suspects that this happened in the time of Paschal I, when Louis the Pious was Emperor; for Anastasius writes of Paschal: This most blessed Prelate, searching out many bodies of Saints, found them: and with greater care he honorably reinterred them within the city, to the honor and glory of God. It seems indeed to have remained in its former tomb at least beyond the year 550, since the same author relates of Vigilius thus: His body was brought to Rome and buried at St. Marcellus on the Salarian Way in the cemetery of Priscilla. If it was transported to the City under Paschal, he perhaps permitted some portion to be conveyed into the diocese of Elne, since Domenec cites a privilege of Louis given in the year 821, by which all the possessions of that monastery are confirmed, at the request of Abbot Castellanus, who also obtained from the Pontiff some Apostolic sanction and relics regarding the same.

[7] The Gallo-Belgian Martyrology and Aubert Le Mire in his Belgian Calendar mention the relics which are at Hautmont on this day; and Molanus in his Additions to Usuard on the 9th of September in these words: At Hautmont, the finding of St. Marcellus, Pope and Martyr. William Gazet also treats of them in his Ecclesiastical History of Belgium, and Molanus more fully in the Feast Days of the Saints of Belgium, where he writes the following:

[8] At Rome, on the Salarian Way, the feast of St. Marcellus the Pope, who was ordered by Maxentius to guard the animals of the stable in the church which he had dedicated: where, overcome by the foulness and stench of the place, he fell asleep in the Lord. The body of this Martyr is held at Hautmont, a most ancient monastery of Hainaut near Maubeuge. During the time of the Hungarian devastation it had been hidden in the ground, At Hautmont long hidden, then discovered: in the place where the most ancient stone now lies, with the inscription "Ursio, Abbot." But under the said Ursio, the first Abbot after the Hungarian devastation, during the wars between the Emperor Henry and Count Baldwin, it was revealed and found, about the year one thousand and fifty-four, on the 5th of the Ides of September. On which day the account of its manifestation, written by the aforesaid Ursio, is read in the same church.

[9] The Cluniacs also celebrate the Reception of Pope St. Marcellus on the 8th day before the Ides of January. Whence it is inferred that his relics are held elsewhere as well. Some at Cluny. The account of his martyrdom stands at the sixteenth day of January, whose authors appear to be Notaries of the Roman Church.

[10] He is depicted at Hautmont, seated with two churches in his hands and two Emperors prostrate beneath him. How he is depicted. Regarding the Emperors there is little doubt: for they are Diocletian and Maximian, or rather Maximian and Maxentius, whom he conquered by his martyrdom: but regarding the churches the matter is less clear. I do not doubt, however, that they signify the house of Lucina, which St. Marcellus consecrated as a church, in which he frequently celebrated Mass; and the house of Cyriacus, in which the said Pope consecrated a baptismal font. For these places were churches, not of the kind we now have, but such as those times permitted under the most grievous persecution. There are, finally, those who judge that the name Marcilius is a corruption of Marcellus.

[11] So Molanus. Concerning the relics of St. Marcellus brought to Cluny, Andrew Saussay has the following in his Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology: At Cluny, the reception of the relics of St. Marcellus, Pope and Martyr, today crowned at Rome: His feast at Cluny, on account of the reception of which most sacred pledges, when the celebration of his feast began to be observed at Cluny, Abbot Peter, surnamed the Venerable, delivered a splendid sermon in his honor, which is still notable among his minor works. So he writes. But that sermon was not published with the other works of Blessed Peter the Venerable in the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis; and Andrew du Chesne testifies that it has not yet been found.

EPITOME OF THE LIFE OF ST. MARCELLUS

from the book on the Roman Pontiffs.

Marcellus, Pope and Martyr (St.)

[1] Marcellus, Roman by birth, son of Benedict, from the region of the Via Lata, held office for five years, six months, and twenty-one days. He lived in the times of Constantius, Galerius, and Maxentius, from the fourth consulship of Maxentius and Maximus, until after the consulship of ... He built cemeteries on the Salarian Way, When and what St. Marcellus accomplished, and established twenty-five Titular churches in the city of Rome, serving as quasi-dioceses, for the baptism and penance of the many who were being converted from paganism, and for the burial of Martyrs. He ordained twenty-six Priests in the city of Rome during the month of December, two Deacons, and twenty-one Bishops in various places.

[2] He was constrained and detained because he was organizing the Church, seized by Maxentius to make him deny that he was a Bishop and humble himself with sacrifices to demons; but he, always despising and mocking the words and decrees of Maxentius, was condemned to the stable, He is condemned to the stable, and while he served there for many days, he did not cease to serve the Lord in prayers and fasts. But in the ninth month, his Clergy all came by night and rescued him from the stable.

[3] He is rescued. A certain matron named Lucina, who had lived with her husband Marcus for fifteen years and had been in her widowhood for nineteen years, received Blessed Marcellus, He consecrates the house of Lucina, and she dedicated her house as a titular church in the name of Blessed Marcellus, where day and night she gave praise to the Lord Jesus Christ with hymns and prayers. When Maxentius heard this, he sent and seized Blessed Marcellus again, He is again condemned, and ordered that planks be laid in the same church, so that the animals of the public stable might be gathered there and Blessed Marcellus might serve them. He finally died, naked and clad in haircloth, while in service to the animals. Blessed Lucina collected his body and buried it in the cemetery of Priscilla, He dies, on the Salarian Way, on the 17th day before the Kalends of February: and the episcopate was vacant for twenty days. Lucina was condemned to proscription.

p The Bertinian manuscript: who in the house.

q It is also called the Title of Lucina, as may be seen in Galesini. Panciroli accumulates much curious information about this church.

r Plank. Papias: A plank (planca) is so called because it is laid flat in some building.

s The Bertinian manuscript: bound together, perhaps more correctly.

EPITAPH OF ST. MARCELLUS

by St. Damasus the Pope.

Marcellus, Pope and Martyr (St.) a

From Damasus.

A truthful shepherd, because he proclaimed that the lapsed should bewail their sins, Was to all wretches a bitter enemy. St. Marcellus was sent into exile. Hence fury, hence hatred followed, strife, quarrels, Sedition, slaughter: the bonds of peace were broken: On account of the sin of another who in time of peace had denied Christ, He was driven from the borders of his fatherland by the cruelty of the Tyrant. These things Damasus wished briefly to make known, That the people might recognize the merit of Marcellus.

ACTS

from various ancient manuscripts.

Marcellus, Pope and Martyr (St.)

BHL Number: 5235

From manuscripts.

CHAPTER I.

The arrest of Saints Cyriacus and Sisinnius. The martyrdom of St. Apronianus.

[1] Christian soldiers condemned to hard labor. At the time when Maximian Augustus, returning from the parts of Africa to the city of Rome, wishing to please Diocletian Augustus, began to build baths in his name from the ground up, he took occasion from his hatred of the Christians to compel all the Roman soldiers to the affliction of labor, and he condemned some in various places to quarrying stone, others to digging sand.

[2] At that time there was a Christian man named Thraso, a powerful man, wealthy in resources and faithful in his way of life. fed by St. Thraso, When he saw the Christians being afflicted with toil and weariness, he began to minister food and sustenance to the holy Martyrs from his own wealth, through St. Cyriacus and his companions. by means of certain Christian men: Cyriacus, Sisinnius, Smaragdus, and Largus. When Blessed Marcellus, Bishop of the City, heard this, he was filled with great joy on account of the alms that Thraso was distributing to the Saints. And requesting that the holy Christian men and servants of our Lord Jesus Christ — Cyriacus, Sisinnius, Smaragdus, and Largus — come to him, he inquired of them: and they made known to St. Marcellus the Bishop how Thraso was providing food to the Saints of God. Then, filled with joy and taking counsel, he consecrated Sisinnius and Cyriacus as Deacons of the Roman Church.

[3] Cyriacus and Sisinnius condemned to the same labors, It happened, however, that one night, while they were carrying on their shoulders the food that Thraso provided, they were seized by pagan soldiers and brought before the Tribune Exspurius. The Tribune, receiving them, cast them into public custody. After three days he reported to Maximian Augustus. When Maximian heard this, he ordered that they too, under guard, should dig sand and carry it on their shoulders to the place where the baths were being built. Among them was an elderly man named Saturninus, already worn out by old age, They help Saturninus, and they began to assist him in carrying. When the guards saw this happening — that the Deacons Cyriacus and Sisinnius were carrying both their own burdens and those of others with the help of Christ — they were amazed and reported it to the Tribune Exspurius. Then the Tribune reported to Maximian Augustus, saying that with hymns and praises to God and with all veneration they were giving glory to Christ.

[4] Sisinnius boldly answers the tyrant, At that time Maximian Augustus sent and ordered Sisinnius to be brought before him. When he had been presented, Maximian said to him: What is your name? He answered: I, a sinner, am called Sisinnius, servant of servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Maximian Augustus said: What are these spells among you? Sisinnius the Deacon answered, saying: If you knew what the songs of the faithful are, you would surely know your Creator. Maximian replied, saying: And who is the Creator, if not unconquered Hercules? Sisinnius the Deacon answered: It is shameful for us even to name or to hear of him. Maximian said: Hasten to choose one of two things: either sacrifice to the god Hercules, or I will burn your flesh with fire. Sisinnius the Deacon said: Indeed I have always wished for this; but only if I shall be worthy he is thrown into prison, to receive the longed-for crown. Maximian Augustus, enraged, handed him over to the Prefect Laodicius. Then the Prefect Laodicius cast him into the Mamertine prison, and he was there in custody for seventeen days.

[5] After these days had passed, the Prefect Laodicius ordered Sisinnius to be brought before him. When he had been presented by the registrar Apronianus, suddenly a light from heaven shone forth, Apronianus is converted by a heavenly light and voice: and a voice came from the light saying: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then Apronianus, trembling, fell at the feet of Sisinnius the Deacon, saying to him: I adjure you by the Christ whom you confess, do not delay to baptize me and make me attain with you to the crown. At that same hour water was brought, and he catechized him, and blessed the font, and placed him unclothed into the basin and said to him: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, and in his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit? And he answered: I believe. And Sisinnius the Deacon said to him: May Christ enlighten you. And he raised him from the basin, and led him to St. Marcellus the Bishop, who signed him with chrism and consecrated the altar: and so they all partook of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[6] On the same day after noon, the Prefect Laodicius ordered Sisinnius the Deacon to be brought before him. He presents himself voluntarily before the Judge: But Apronianus the registrar, now baptized, coming with Sisinnius the Deacon, began to cry out, saying: What drives you by the devil to inflict such evils upon the servants of God? Then the Prefect said to Apronianus the registrar: How is it that I see you, and you too have become a Christian? Apronianus answered: Woe to me, unhappy wretch, that I have wasted my days. The Prefect answered: Now indeed you shall lose your days; and he ordered him to undergo the capital sentence, he is beheaded, saying: If this man is not killed, many will perish. At that time he was led out on the Salarian Way, at the second milestone, and beheaded on the fourth day before the Nones of February.

CHAPTER II.

The martyrdom of Saints Sisinnius, Saturninus, Papias, and Maurus.

[7] Then he ordered the elderly Saturninus and Sisinnius the Deacon to be cast back into prison, saying: If they do not sacrifice to the gods, I will put them to death by various torments. Then the aged Saturninus, while in custody together with Sisinnius the Deacon, received many pagans who came to them and were baptized with all confidence. When the Prefect Laodicius heard this, he ordered a tribunal to be prepared for himself in the City at the Temple of Tellus. And after forty-two days, Saturninus and Sisinnius he sent for and summoned Saturninus and Sisinnius the Deacon: and they were brought before Laodicius in chains, with bare feet. Laodicius said to them: What now? Have you not put aside your vain superstitions and worshipped the gods whom the Emperors worship? Sisinnius the Deacon answered: We sinners worship our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For we never bow down before demons and stones. Laodicius said: Let a tripod be brought, and let them offer incense to the majesties. Saturninus said: May the Lord destroy the gods of the nations. And immediately the bronze tripod was dissolved like mud. Then two soldiers, Papias and Maurus, seeing this, began to cry out and to say: They convert Papias and Maurus: Truly the Lord Jesus Christ is God, whom Sisinnius and Saturninus worship.

[8] And so Laodicius the Prefect, enraged, ordered them to be raised on the rack. And as they were stretched, they were beaten with sinews, rods, and scorpions. But they cried out saying: Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, that we have been deemed worthy to become companions of your servants. They are tortured together with them: Then Papias and Maurus cried out, saying: Why does the devil so compel you to inflict these things upon the servants of God? Laodicius, enraged, ordered their mouths to be struck with stones, and he had them cast back into prison; but he ordered flames to be placed at the sides of Saturninus and Sisinnius. They, however, hanging on the rack, gave thanks to God with cheerful countenance. On that very day he pronounced the capital sentence upon them. They are killed; And being taken down from the rack, they were led out on the Nomentane Way, at the second milestone, and there they were beheaded. Thraso, together with John the Priest, gathered their bodies and buried them on his estate on the Salarian Way, on the fourth day before the Kalends of December.

[9] Then Papias and Maurus. After twelve days, the Prefect Laodicius ordered the soldiers Papias and Maurus, who had been baptized by Blessed Marcellus the Bishop, to be brought before him in the Circus Flaminius. When he had seen them, he said to them: Now I know that you too are Christians. Papias said: Truly Christians. Laodicius said to them: Put aside and abandon your vain delusion, and worship the gods whom the Princes worship. Maurus answered and said: Let those worship them who have despaired of their own souls, that they may perish forever. The Prefect Laodicius said: Now you shall despair of your own souls if you do not sacrifice to the immortal gods. Listen and do what I say, and live. Papias answered: You sacrifice, and you shall live in eternal torments. Then he ordered them to be thrown to the ground and beaten with rods. And as they were beaten for a long time, no voice was heard from them except only: Christ, help us your servants. Then he ordered them to be raised from the ground and beaten with lead-weighted whips. And as they were beaten for a long time, they yielded up their spirits. John the Priest gathered their bodies by night and buried them on the Nomentane Way, on the fourth day before the Kalends of February, at the Baths of Blessed Peter, where he used to baptize.

CHAPTER III.

The royal maidens Artemia and Jobia freed from a demon by St. Cyriacus.

[10] Not many days later, the Prefect Laodicius reported everything to the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian about the soldiers and about the Saints whom he had killed: and Diocletian and Maximian Augustus rejoiced. Then, after a few days, it was reported to Diocletian Augustus that his daughter Artemia was being tormented by a demon. Artemia, Diocletian's daughter, is possessed by a demon, Wherefore he was saddened with great affliction and on that day refused to eat. And while Blessed Cyriacus had been in prison for a long time, and had already been forgotten, many Christians used to go to him in his cell, and the blind were given sight, and the sick were healed of their infirmities. Meanwhile Artemia, the daughter of Diocletian, began to be troubled by a demon. by St. Cyriacus, endowed with the gift of healing, When this had been reported to Diocletian Augustus, he entered her chamber: and behold the demon himself began to cry out through the mouth of Artemia in the presence of Diocletian, saying: Unless Cyriacus the Deacon comes, I will not go out. Immediately Diocletian sent to the prison where he was confined and bound in chains, together with Largus and Smaragdus, and brought him out. And when he had been presented to Diocletian Augustus, he began to beg him to go in to his daughter.

[11] And when Cyriacus had entered her room, he said: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. But the demon answered through the mouth of Artemia, saying: If you want me to come out, give me a vessel in which I may enter. Cyriacus said to him: If you can, behold, enter my body. The devil answered through the mouth of Artemia: I cannot enter your vessel, because it is sealed and closed on every side. She is freed, Cyriacus said to him: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, come out of her, that she may become a clean vessel for serving the Holy Spirit. And he said to Artemia: Daughter, believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord. But the demon cried out, saying: O Cyriacus, if you cast me out from here, I will make you come to Persia. Cyriacus said to him: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, come out; and immediately he came out.

[12] Then Artemia cried out, saying: By that same name I beseech you to baptize me: she is baptized, for I see from afar the Lord whom you preach, Blessed Cyriacus. Then Blessed Largus and Smaragdus, taking her by the hand, raised her up. On the following day, according to custom, he catechized her, and St. Cyriacus blessed the water that was brought and baptized her in the presence of her mother Serena Augusta, with her father and others: in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. From that day Serena said to her daughter that she should faithfully embrace the Christian religion. After ten months and two years, when the construction of the baths had been completed with glory, Diocletian Augustus began to treat Cyriacus the Deacon well, Cyriacus lives securely at Rome: and he gave him a house and ordered that he should live in safety in the city of Rome, with Serena Augusta, the wife of Diocletian, arranging matters.

[13] After a short time, however, an embassy came from the King of Persia to Diocletian Augustus, asking him to send Cyriacus the Deacon to him: because his daughter was being tormented by a demon. Then Diocletian Augustus, seeing the earnest petition of Sapor, King of Persia, commanded his wife Serena to ask Cyriacus the Deacon to come to her. When Cyriacus had come to Serena Augusta, she told him the embassy from Sapor, King of Persia, [he is sent to Persia, Serena Augusta the Christian supplying provisions for the journey:] as Diocletian Augustus her husband had told her. Cyriacus the Deacon said to her: With the help of my Lord Jesus Christ the Savior, I shall go safely. At that time Serena Augusta, a most Christian woman, provided every conveyance and whatever necessities were needed for the voyage: and Largus and Smaragdus went with him all the way to Persia. The soldiers traveled with post-horses. But Blessed Cyriacus, with his staff, arrived at each stopping-place before them, all the way until he reached Sapor, King of Persia. On foot he outstrips his mounted companions.

[14] And when they had been presented to the King — Cyriacus the Deacon, and Largus and Smaragdus — the King said to them: Which of you is called Cyriacus the Deacon? And when he learned who the Deacon was, he bowed down before him and asked him to enter the chamber of his daughter, named Jobia. At that very hour the devil cried out from the girl's mouth and said to Cyriacus: What is it, Cyriacus? Cyriacus answered: In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, I command you, unclean spirit, come out, and do not return to her again. The devil answered: You are weary. Cyriacus answered: He frees Jobia, daughter of Sapor, from a demon: I came forth in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, by whose help I have been guided and in all things am guided, and I am not weary. The devil said to him: Nevertheless I have brought you to where I wished. But Cyriacus the Deacon, seeing the girl in torment, threw himself on the pavement, praying and weeping, and saying: My Lord Jesus Christ, whom I have confessed, commands you to come out. The devil answered: Give me a vessel in which I may enter. St. Cyriacus said: The Lord Jesus Christ, God from God, himself commands you to come out. And behold, with a great howling and a cry, foaming and shouting, the devil spoke in the air: O terrible name, which compels me to come out! And from that hour Jobia was made well.

[15] Then Blessed Cyriacus said to her: Daughter, believe in the Son of God, and you shall always be well. Jobia answered: I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you preach. He baptizes her, And he made her a catechumen in the customary manner, and catechized her, and when water was brought, he placed her in a silver basin; and he blessed the water and said to her: Jobia, do you believe in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? She answered: I believe. And he said to her: Do you believe in the resurrection of the flesh? She answered: I believe. with her father and others: And being raised from the basin, Jobia began to say: Truly the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Blessed Cyriacus preaches, is himself God. At that same hour all her relatives were baptized: and the King himself was baptized, and others of both sexes, four hundred and twenty in number, were likewise baptized. At that time the King offered many gifts and moneys to Blessed Cyriacus. To whom St. Cyriacus said: We do not offer the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for a price, He refuses the gifts offered: but we esteem it by faith. And he accepted nothing: but used only bread and water, together with Largus and Smaragdus. After forty-five days, boarding a ship, He returns to Rome: with commendatory letters from the King, he returned to Rome. Diocletian Augustus received him with great honor, together with his wife and daughter: and Blessed Cyriacus began to live with Largus and Smaragdus in the house which Diocletian had given him near the Baths of Diocletian.

f Others: Jovia.

i Others: well.

CHAPTER IV.

The slaughter of Saints Cyriacus, Crescentianus, Artemia, and others. The constancy of Marcellus.

[16] After two months, Diocletian Augustus departed to Dalmatia, where, afflicted by illness, he made a testament and appointed his sons as co-heirs, and died. When his son Maximian Augustus heard this, He is arrested: he decreed that Christians, wherever they were found, should be punished. And moved by zeal on account of his sister Artemia, he sent and seized Cyriacus the Deacon, and committed him to prison, and ordered that on the day of his procession, He is dragged, bound, before the tyrant's chariot, as an example to Christians, Cyriacus should be dragged naked and bound in chains before his chariot.

[17] But on the day of the procession, Marcellus the Bishop came and presented himself to Maximian Augustus, saying to him: I submit to your Piety: why do you slaughter the servants of God, who pray for your kingdom and for the state? Marcellus, rebuking the tyrant, is beaten with clubs, Then Maximian Augustus, enraged, ordered that Marcellus the Bishop be beaten with clubs and expelled; and he instructed the Vicar Carpasius, saying: Listen, Carpasius: Cyriacus the sacrilegious one, who by magic spells and incantations persuades men to confess Christ, afflict with various torments if he does not offer libations to the gods.

[18] At that time the Vicar Carpasius, sending to the prison, brought forth Cyriacus the Deacon, Largus, Smaragdus, and Crescentianus, and ordered them to be presented at the Temple of Tellus; to whom he said: Why do you not obey the commands of the Emperors and offer libations to the immortal gods? Cyriacus answered, together with Largus, Smaragdus, and Crescentianus: We offer ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. Cyriacus is drenched with boiling pitch. The Vicar Carpasius said: Do what is commanded you. Your white head has grown old, Cyriacus, but I will now make it young. And he ordered pitch to be melted: and when it had been melted, he commanded it to be poured on the head of Blessed Cyriacus the Deacon. Then Blessed Cyriacus began to cry out and say: Glory to you, O Lord, who have deemed us, your servants, worthy to enter the gates of the heavenly kingdom.

[19] Carpasius also said to the others: Sacrifice, or you will perish like the treacherous Cyriacus. They said: We sinners offer ourselves as a sacrifice to the Lord Jesus Christ. St. Crescentianus dies under torture. Then the Vicar Carpasius brought the rack into his presence, and ordered Crescentianus to be suspended on it and beaten with clubs, in the sight of Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus. And as he was stretched for a long time with sinews and beaten with clubs and scraped with hooks, he cried out with a loud voice, saying: Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, who have deemed us worthy to be called to your grace. Carpasius said: Apply flames to his sides. And as he was pressed by fire and burned for a long time, he yielded up his spirit. Carpasius ordered his body to be cast before the Clivus Ursi, in the street before the temple of the Palace. That night John the Priest came and gathered his body and buried it in the cemetery of Priscilla, in the catacomb on the Old Salarian Way, on the 8th day before the Kalends of December.

[20] After the death of Crescentianus, he cast Largus, Smaragdus, and Cyriacus back into prison. After four days, he took his seat in the same place at the Temple of Tellus, and ordered Cyriacus the Deacon to be brought before him, and said to him thus: Why do you lead the days of your old age to the underworld amid torments? Cyriacus the Deacon answered: Cyriacus is again tortured: I have always desired this. Carpasius said to him: Sacrifice to the immortal gods, and you shall live. Cyriacus answered: Let those sacrifice to them who have not known their Creator, our Lord Jesus Christ. When the most impious Vicar Carpasius heard this, he was greatly enraged, and ordered him to be stretched on the catasta, and racked with sinews, and beaten with clubs. Cyriacus, however, cried out, saying: Have mercy on me, a sinner, Lord Jesus Christ. On the same day, the Vicar Carpasius reported everything to Maximian Augustus that he had done to the Saints of God. Then Maximian, enraged, ordered all the prisoners who were in custody to be beheaded together with Cyriacus. And when the sentence had been given, together with twenty-one others he is beheaded, they were led out with Cyriacus the Deacon, persons of both sexes numbering twenty-one, and they were beheaded on the Salarian Way within the Baths of Sallust outside the walls. John the Priest gathered their bodies by night and buried them on the same road: but he gathered holy Cyriacus and laid him to rest there on the 17th day before the Kalends of April, to the glory and praise of God. St. Artemia is killed. At that same time, Maximian Augustus killed his sister Artemia.

CHAPTER V.

The piety of St. Lucina. The labors and martyrdom of Marcellus.

[21] St. Marcellus and Lucina bury the bodies of the slain. After eight days, Marcellus the Bishop came with Lucina, a most Christian matron, and anointed the bodies of the Saints with spices and linen cloths, and placed them by night in a palanquin with her eunuchs, and took them from where they had been laid. The bodies, together with St. Cyriacus, were translated to her estate on the Ostian Way, seven miles from the city of Rome; where they rest in stone sarcophagi, which Blessed Lucina placed with her own hands in peace, on the 6th of the Ides of August.

[22] At that time Blessed Lucina made a donation of all her property to the holy Catholic Church. Lucina gives her possessions to the Church. When Maximian Augustus heard this, he was indignant and condemned her to proscription. But Blessed Lucina asked St. Marcellus the Bishop to consecrate her house as a church. Which Blessed Marcellus the Bishop did with all devotion. But when he frequently celebrated Mass in the same house, in the middle of the city on the Via Lata; Maximian Augustus, hearing this, was enraged, sent officers into the same church, and by his command ordered that planks be laid in that church for the animals of the public stable, St. Marcellus serves the beasts: and he assigned the same Marcellus the Bishop to the service of the animals, with public custody. Where also, after many years of serving, clothed in a garment of haircloth, he yielded up his spirit, on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of February. John the Priest, together with Blessed Lucina, seized his body by night, he dies: anointed it with spices, and buried it in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Old Salarian Way, he is buried. not far from the city of Rome, at the third milestone, where he rests in peace.

[23] Carpasius profanes the house of St. Cyriacus and its baptistery, At that time Maximian Augustus ordered the Vicar Carpasius to come to him, and questioned him about the examination and death of the Saints. And when Carpasius saw that Maximian was pleased with him, he asked him for the house of Blessed Cyriacus. He immediately gave him the house of Cyriacus the Deacon. And when he had entered the same house which Diocletian Augustus had given to Blessed Cyriacus, he found the place where St. Cyriacus had built a baptismal font, which Blessed Marcellus the Bishop had consecrated, where St. Cyriacus frequently baptized those who came to the faith. Then the Vicar Carpasius, a most cruel pagan, entered the same house, and when he had entered and found the baptistery, he made a bathhouse in that place, as if to mock the Christian law. There he frequently provided baths for prostitutes and actors, rejoicing in base profit in a sanctified place. And when these things frequently occurred, together with banquets among the wicked; one day, when they had bathed and were serving themselves a feast, as Carpasius came out of the bath with many wicked men, he perishes miserably, with some companions. nineteen together with the Vicar Carpasius suddenly collapsed and died. From that day they shut the bathhouse, and a great fear fell upon that whole district, even to this day. Thanks be to God.

[24] The bodies of the Saints, that is, of Cyriacus, Largus, Smaragdus, Crescentianus, Memmia, and Juliana, were buried on the Ostian Way, The Saints are buried. about the eighth mile from the city of Rome: where their prayers flourish now and always, and as long as this world shall stand, with our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen.

OTHER ACTS

by Ursio, Abbot of Hautmont, from three ancient manuscripts.

Marcellus, Pope and Martyr (St.)

BHL Number: 5237

By Ursio, from manuscripts.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] To his lord, Liebert, truly an episcopal Bishop, health and prosperity, from brother Ursio, Abbot in name and staff, not in work or merit.

The praise of Blessed Liebert, Bishop of Cambrai. The episcopal dignity, most holy Father, which is known to preside over and benefit the Churches and ecclesiastical affairs, as much as it grieves some by the haughtiness of their bishops, so much does it gladden us by the preferment of your humility, piety, and nobility. For the Lord has looked down from on high upon these our latter times; since the sons of the Church, whom the most terrible tempest of wars and desolation had oppressed, are daily relieved by the honeyed consolation of your admonition and prayer. For you are the shepherd of the sheep, not climbing into the fold from elsewhere, but through the door: you are the staff of your subjects, you are in the Church of Christ, the eye of your pastoral care. The flower of the Church blossoms forth in fruitfulness in your old age, which, having mastered the stings of the flesh, sleeps with the perpetual virginity of the Shunammite, and disdaining luxury, delegates it to the young son Maatha, nor wishes to cross the Jordan. 2 Kings 19. Therefore you arrange the ascents in your heart, in the place where God has set the contest for the victors, namely in the valley of tears; where, because as a father going before you show the way to your children, you shall see the God of gods, and your flesh shall exult in the living God.

[2] The relics of St. Marcellus and other Saints discovered under him. Nor is the patronage of the Saints wanting, whose relics, resting under your wings, sought out by the diligence of your predecessors, were long hidden indeed by the injury of the times, but at length in some places were happily revealed in these latter days, for whose intercession I must pray; but concerning St. Marcellus, Pope and Martyr, I must briefly write, with your permission and blessing, whose glorious manifestation among us has recently conferred inestimable glory upon your See, and for us sinners has momentarily brought an unspeakable confidence before God.

[3] I appoint you the judge of this description, so that since by his grace I have you as a mediator between myself and God, Ursio the Abbot describes his life and translation. in that which my intellect falls short of your expectation, I may also have you as a defender: a defender, I say, of so great an audacity, inasmuch as I dare to undertake a work not suited to my powers, unless you deign to sweeten my insipid discourse with the seasoning of your wit. For I inhabit the land of Naim; in the valley of Jehoshaphat, where sinners are judged, I always see God. But who is free, who is untouched by sins? No first, no last, no middle person: every man is guilty. And who am I to narrate the righteous deeds of God, and to take his covenant upon my lips? Certainly praise in the mouth of a sinner is not comely: but to praise God is already some beginning of comeliness. And what greater praise and glory of God than the magnificence of his elect, whom he deigns to magnify with the munificence of his grace? For this is, this is the devotion of the Churches, honored by the various merits of the Saints, just as it pleased the King of heaven to arrange their mansions: for just as there are many mansions in the Father's house, so there are many mansions of the Saints on earth, and many revelations, and writers to reveal their glory. John 14:2 I too, although I take no pleasure in the pursuit of composition, but am daily afflicted by the prison-house of living; yet having regard for our domestic reputation, I feel it necessary to excerpt individually the life of our patron, St. Marcellus, which is interwoven with the deeds of the holy Martyrs Saturninus, Sisinnius, Cyriacus, Largus, Smaragdus, and the rest whose master he was; and thereafter when and how he was translated to us, and later manifested in our times, I think it fitting to record in writing for posterity. In all of which, most worthy Father, do not look for comic elegance, nor for a florid oration adorned with meandering speech, because the doctrine of Christ is not constrained by the rules of Donatus. And now let there be an end to my preface, lest in wishing to be dutiful, I become injurious.

BOOK I.

The Acts of St. Marcellus.

CHAPTER I. The works and decrees of St. Marcellus.

[4] The Church is a fertile field. It is beautiful to see fields ripened with the golden stalks of grain; but it is more beautiful to attend to the fields of the Church, gleaming with the plantation of Martyrs, crimsoned through the blood of the Lamb by their own gore: for the harvests of the Martyrs are their sufferings, taking root beside the courses of waters from the fountains of tears. Coming therefore they shall come with exultation, bearing their sheaves in blessedness, and those who sowed in tears shall reap in joy beside the tree of the cross, where the nearest fountain of the Savior springs. Psalm 125. Whence the endurance of the Martyrs, being planted, began to gather its crimson fruits of its seed, after the victory of the Lord's passion had crushed the power of the ancient enemy, and the plague of torments began anew to rage against the followers of Christ. Against which, faith, trusting in the strong defense of arms, advanced to fight hand to hand, stood in the battle line, joined the combat, and conquered, and sent the company of Martyrs in their flock to the heavenly kingdoms. By which contest the four quarters of the world were shaken; At Rome idolatry flourishes, but Rome, superior to all, was more foully subverted than all: because she who had compelled all peoples far and wide to serve her, served the idols of all the nations with the most abominable rite, and she who disdained to possess gold, but rather to command those who possessed it, then the Christian religion. now could not resist her own self. Whence it happened that there the savagery of torments burned more fiercely, where the impurity of demons had flowed together more abundantly. But there was no lack of requital: because after Peter and Paul triumphed in their blood, the multitude of Martyrs drove out the multitude of demons, whose followers were very many, afterward crowned with victorious garlands, and some also enthroned in the kingdoms of heaven after holding the Apostolic See.

[5] Among whom St. Marcellus, Pope and Martyr, shining forth like a golden star, nobly illuminated his native soil by his teaching and his blood: for he was Roman by birth, the son of Benedict, and a native of the district called the Via Lata, who made the flower of his youth fragrant with the grace of his old age. For the whole intention of his life was this: that in the confession of God his profession should reach its end. Nor was his hope disappointed: for elevated to the Apostolic See, he undertook the laurel-wreathed combat of the Church. For the title of which profession he ennobled his See and the very head of the world, namely Rome, St. Marcellus builds a cemetery: as far as the fury of the times permitted. He built a cemetery on the Salarian Way: and on account of the baptism and penance of the many who were being converted from paganism, and on account of the burials of the Martyrs, he established twenty-five Titular churches in the city of Rome: he also ordained twenty Priests and two Deacons: he establishes various things: he also authoritatively decreed his decrees, which are found among the decrees of the Roman Pontiffs. But he presided over the Roman See for no more than five years, four months, and twenty-one days. When these had been completed, by Apostolic decree, a duel took place on the public stage between equity and iniquity, between justice and injustice.

[6] Diocletian and Maximian wielded the scepters, Maxentius and Maximinus held the consulship, under which tyrants he suffered. who afterward, taking up the purple laid down by Diocletian and Maximian, succeeded those who had used it unhappily still more unhappily. The savage cruelty of these four became the glorious victory of one Martyr, namely St. Marcellus: for the crowns of the one were as many as the torturers whom through Christ the one was able to endure. For he knew how to be struck for Christ and not fail in Christ: nor could he fear the torturers in the contest, because he wished to rejoice in the triumph: he had no fear of temporal battle, because he strove to obtain the victory of perpetuity: nor was he solicitous for himself alone, but also for the children of the Church over which he presided, whom the same arena, under the same torturers, was fitting with crowns.

CHAPTER II. The labors of the Saints. The martyrdom of Apronianus.

[7] The prelude to this contest began to unfold after the return of Maximian Augustus from the parts of Africa. Christian soldiers condemned to carrying burdens, For wishing to please Diocletian, he began to build baths at Rome from the ground up in his name. And because he bore ill will toward the Christians, he imposed upon them the affliction of this labor, assigning some to transporting stones, others to digging sand. To them, laboring even to the point of pity, with no one showing mercy for their misery, God provided a certain faithful man, Thraso, rich in resources. When he saw them afflicted by such toil, through Sisinnius and Cyriacus, nourished by Thraso, through St. Cyriacus and companions, through Largus and Smaragdus, he arranged to minister food to them. And so the Martyrs, relieved by the nourishment of food, were building not baths for the Emperors, but crowns for themselves in toil and hardship.

[8] But St. Marcellus, anxious about the failing of his children, daily offered himself as a sacrifice to Christ on their behalf, in prayer with tears and humility of spirit. Cyriacus and Sisinnius made Deacons, And when the service of Thraso became known to him, giving thanks to God, he consecrated two Deacons, as has been described, Sisinnius and Cyriacus, who might both serve the Roman Church and minister food to those in distress from Thraso's resources. This ecclesiastical ordination was the exultation of the whole Church, and the relief of the necessity of the Confessors in their toil. Happy ministers, well instructed by the teaching of so great a father, and who were to precede him to the crown in due time.

[9] Receiving with joy, therefore, the office entrusted to them, they become companions of the Martyrs in a double way, they are apprehended, because obedient service is never sent away without its reward. On a certain night, therefore, going out from the house of Thraso and carrying food to their companions on their own shoulders, they were cruelly seized by pagan soldiers and presented to the Prefect Exspurius. He, rejoicing at their capture, hastens to please Maximian Augustus by their denunciation. Maximian, raging with cruelty, they are condemned to digging sand, and not only cruel but cruelty itself, places them under public guard and imposes upon them the sentence of digging sand. Among those assigned was a certain old man named Saturninus, already broken by age, worn out by the excessive affliction of labor, and himself distressing the young men who were with him by the pitiable condition of his age. There was a spectacle to see misery and mercy coming together, they help others, piety and charity rendering aid, the holy Martyrs scorning their own fortunes, young men lifting the old man who could scarcely support himself from the burden imposed upon him, the guards marveling and being amazed.

[10] Nor did it escape the Emperor, to whom informers against Martyrs were more pleasing than informers against kingdoms. When such devotion was reported to him, grieving that so much piety remained in his realm, he handed them over to the Prefect Laodicius for punishment. Laodicius in turn handed them to the registrar Apronianus for confinement in prison. Apronianus is converted, But Apronianus, visited by a divine glance, falling at the feet of Sisinnius with a solemn protestation, said: I adjure you by Christ, that you make me a sharer in your predestined glory. Thereupon Sisinnius catechized him, led the catechized man to the font, questioned him about his belief, immersed him in the font, raised him up in the customary manner, and led him to St. Marcellus, by whom he was consecrated with chrism and fully communicated with the Church. Not much time passed before he was ordered to undergo the capital sentence, he is killed, and he preceded his teachers to the crown.

CHAPTER III. The slaughter of Saints Papias, Maurus, Cyriacus, and others. The constancy of Marcellus.

[11] Saturninus and Sisinnius, cast back into prison, were winning as many as they could for their faith: Papias and Maurus are converted: among whom, having initiated two soldiers, Papias and Maurus, and having shattered the tripod brought for them to offer incense by the power of their prayers, they were suspended on the rack by the Prefect Laodicius, beaten with scorpions, burned with flames, and finally beheaded, they are killed, and sent ahead to the kingdom. Papias and Maurus, baptized by St. Marcellus and arrested after their baptism and presented before the Prefect Flaminius, succeeded to the palm and the kingdom in the succession of torments. The bodies of all of them were laid to rest by the command of Blessed Marcellus on the Nomentane Way and the Salarian Way. He himself was constant in prayer, that the Son of God might render his children steadfast in the contest, for whom he himself was soon to contend.

[12] For indeed Cyriacus, whom he had appointed his Deacon, Cyriacus frees the possessed Artemia, together with Blessed Sisinnius, had been consigned to oblivion and held in prison with Largus and Smaragdus. But when the demon bore witness to his power through the mouth of Artemia, the daughter of Diocletian, he was led forth by order of the same Emperor, restored the girl to her freedom, and, having purified her by the font of baptism, rendered her freer still in Christ. Then, having been summoned by King Sapor to the regions of Persia, he cleansed Jobia his daughter from a demon, and Jobia; and he converts the Persians, and freed the King himself and the Queen, with the whole kingdom of Persia, from demonic servitude. And so, having returned to Rome, when Diocletian had entered upon the way of all flesh, he began his struggle powerfully against Maximian for his victory.

[13] For Maximian, moved by zeal on account of his sister Artemia, St. Artemia is killed, did not blush — a man of wretched condition — to subject his own sister to torments: and he ordered Cyriacus to perish by wretched tortures. He also had him dragged naked and bound before his carriage on the day of his procession, to the disgrace of the Christians. And when the others had already been sent ahead to the crown except this one, St. Marcellus followed him with tears, as a father follows a son. Where, about to fight, he brought not a scrip with David, but armed with patience he confronted the tyrant with these words: Most excellent of Emperors, Marcellus freely rebukes the Emperor: I come to submit to your majesty, lest the oppression of the humble become the confirmation of your exaltation. For equity has always been eloquent among the rulers of Rome: to spare the humble and to subdue the proud. Behold, the children of the Church are oppressed, who pray continually for your state and for the Republic. It does not befit Roman valor to lead forth the battle line of its ferocity against the unarmed and defenseless. The crowd of the innocent is slaughtered, and Roman valor is stained by the disgrace of this infamy. So the old man finished his speech, but not without penalty. He is beaten with rods. For the Emperor being enraged, he was dishonored, and without respect for either the priesthood or his old age, he was beaten with rods and expelled with insults.

[14] Nor did he alone feel the Emperor's wrath: for immediately upon the Saints, for whom the Pope had interceded, Cyriacus and his companions are killed, the minister of the devil dictated a sentence of torments. The Vicar Carpasius was chosen as torturer, ordered to try every kind of torment upon Cyriacus, Largus, Smaragdus, and Crescentianus. And he gladly accepted the commission he was given, for had he dared he would gladly have supplied even without being ordered, as the torments of the Martyrs afterward proved: for he raged against them with such cruelty, as if he were to acquire a kingdom through their torments. And so the holy Martyrs are tortured, drenched with boiling pitch, suspended on the rack, stretched upon the catasta, burned with fires, and finally ordered to undergo the capital sentence. Thus united in suffering, they are buried by Marcellus, they sought heaven in genuine fellowship. The office of burial, as a father for his children, St. Marcellus supplied with paternal devotion and ecclesiastical care.

CHAPTER IV. The labors of St. Marcellus in the stable, and his death.

[15] When these had been sent ahead to life, their crowns adorning the crown of their pastor Marcellus, St. Marcellus consecrates the house of Lucina: the pastor himself without much delay was prepared for the sacrifice. For a certain Blessed Lucina, a matron of the noblest rank, with her mind set upon heavenly things and despising earthly ones, through the same Pope made a donation of her property to all the Churches. The Emperor, moved to indignation at this, condemned her to proscription. But she asked the Pope to consecrate her house as a church, so that a place of carnality might become a place of consecration. He did not delay: he consecrated the church, in which he frequently also celebrated Mass.

[16] But that same house was afterward a prison for him, and a place of exile; yet he did not despise exile, because he desired heaven. He considered the prison a palace, because he desired to rejoice in paradise. And what had been a palace, there he serves the beasts: that house of God was ordered to be a stable for animals: in which forthwith the pastor of souls was appointed the pastor of animals. Public custody was also imposed upon him; lest so great a priest should lack a double indignity. He was humiliated in every way: no food was allowed him except bread; his bed and his clothing were a sack of haircloth. Thus offering himself as a sacrifice to God, in vigils and fasts for a long time, he fulfilled the office imposed upon him, praying and chanting psalms. This was no private affair, but a common one: the Bishop suffered in confession, and the Church suffered with him in prayer.

[17] But when Maximian, having laid aside the purple, had followed his colleague Diocletian, the Clergy came by night and brought St. Marcellus out of the stable. He is rescued by the Clergy: The Church was suddenly gladdened, as if restored by the patronage of so great a Pastor. But a grief not less than the former quickly followed: in the wake of that joy, as is the way of human uncertainty, the light that had arisen was darkened, and the joys of the light were disturbed. Already the Priest had been victorious in his own struggle, and had offered the sacrifice of his victory, namely himself as the victim of confession: already he had merited the crown for himself, and had petitioned indulgence for his subjects. What new thing, then, arose? What evil succeeded? What intervened? Maxentius, worse than his predecessors, having obtained the empire by the ill fortune of the realm, acquired the inheritance of cruelty toward the Christians just as he acquired the inheritance of rule. When he compelled the holy Pope to deny he is again condemned to the same: that he was a Bishop, and the Pope, confessing Christ, mocked the sacrifices of demons, once again, with a sentence issued in fury, he was returned to the stable with public custody. He received back the office of his pastoral duty, he led the animals out and brought them back with contrition of heart. The Church became for him a stable, and that bestial prison became a royal palace, because through this he was being prepared for the kingdom.

[18] O punishment unlike all others, and therefore more dear to the holy Martyr than all the rest! Certainly that sentence seemed more lenient to him, which the madness of the torturer calculated to be more unbearable. For although he was so greatly dishonored by such an indignity in the stable, yet with contemplative intent he always sighed for heaven. Clinging to it constantly with tears, that delay which seemed to him more grievous was shortened by the mercy of the Savior and the equity of the just rewarder. For while Maxentius plotted to defer the punishment, Christ disposed to reward his soldier. He resolved to open the prison for him, to change his pastoral office, to transfer him from among the animals to among the Angels, to grant him paradise in place of the stable, and to render due recompense for the punishments endured, to bring the Martyr among Martyrs, to hold forth the crown prepared by the conquest of enemies for the combatant, he dies: and to defer his soldier from the kingdom no longer. And so, having served there through some years in hunger and thirst, in labors and hardships, in vigils and fasts, naked and clothed only in haircloth, persisting in the service of animals, at last in the confession of God he cheerfully yielded up his spirit. O sleep of peace! O rest of immortality!

[19] Blessed John the Priest, together with the Priests and Deacons and Blessed Lucina, gathered his body and buried it in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian Way, on the 17th day before the Kalends of February; he is buried. so that by the Deacons and disciples whom he had sent ahead to the kingdom, he might not be separated even in burial. O pious congregation, of whom there is no separation either in heaven or on earth! O rewards and crowns of the Martyrs, which perpetually flourish with the flower of immortality and eternal life! They know not how to wither, because they did not fear to burn in the flames, whom the Lamb shall lead to the living fountains of waters, and shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and they shall blossom as the lily in the midst of the Angels.

BOOK II.

The account of the manifestation and the itinerary of St. Marcellus.

CHAPTER I. The relics of St. Marcellus long hidden.

[1] There is a place situated on the river called the Sambre, called Hautmont — from a part, not the whole (for it is not so very lofty) — The monastery of Hautmont, which is adorned by a monastery of famous antiquity and, as may be conjectured from the remains of its predecessors, of ancient nobility. For the measurements of the temple having been marked out by an Angel, Vincent Madelgarius labored powerfully on its construction — he who was Duke of the Lotharingians, the Franks, and the Saxons — and afterward in that same place professed the monastic life, casting aside the secular military service and offering himself as a single combatant of the divine warfare. Together with him, King Dagobert also enriched the place: he endowed and enlarged it with revenues and resources. The relics of St. Marcellus were translated there. He also fittingly honored and adorned it with relics of Saints, as each of them was able to do, and for the service of these he established nearly three hundred monks. Among them, through the intercession of St. Vincent, with the concession of Pope Martin, and under the escort of King Dagobert, St. Marcellus the Pope and Martyr, removed from the eighth mile from the city of Rome, was translated with honorable ceremony to the aforesaid place.

[2] Where, having been received with the greatest officiousness, he was not deprived for a long time of the dutiful service of the monks. But when, as the golden and silver ages declined, the iron age succeeded, as fortune, the stepmother of prosperity, oppressed the world, the Riphean mountains sent forth the tempests and thunderbolts of the Hungarians and Huns upon Gaul, by whom churches were desolated, monks, Neglected during the incursions of the barbarians, nuns, and clergy were condemned to exile, and Hautmont, humbled among the rest, became a place of desolation: its inhabitants having been put to flight, it was left to such great neglect that no one retained even the memory of its relics. Through the successions of time, through the divisions, as they succeeded one another, of monks and clerics, through the dissensions of minds and the encroachments of soldiers, the revenues of the Church were reduced to nothing by degrees. But when the time to have mercy upon it returned, because the stones of it pleased the servants of God, the Lord looked upon the prayer of the humble and did not despise their petition.

CHAPTER II. The relics discovered and adorned.

[3] There lay hidden that lamp under a bushel, namely St. Marcellus, Pope and Martyr, without any title of veneration; through whom, by the divine mercy providing for the place, in his manifestation the iron times were mercifully softened. The divinely foreseen occasion of this manifestation was the succession of Abbot Ursio to the governance. Ursio, Abbot of Hautmont, For he received this same monastery to govern by the grant of God, at the very time when the tempest of wars raged between the Emperor Henry and Count Baldwin, and he found its affairs greatly diminished, as has been described, by the passage of time, the loss of resources, and the daily approach or incursion of devastators. His distress was increased because poverty assailed the Brethren, and he had no means of relieving them. What then was he to do? Where was he to turn? Having turned over in his mind all his options, nothing external met his eyes that could resist the force of such necessity. He turned to internal things, and casting his eyes about, he found a small casket in which the bones of the holy Martyr Marcellus lay at rest, made of silver indeed, but rough and without any engraving. He was burning with anguish, because it was hidden from all what was contained in the casket; compelled by poverty, he sells the casket of St. Marcellus's relics: yet there was no doubt that it contained relics. At last, what usually prevails in such desperate straits conquered, namely necessity, which always seeks the consolation of need: and by the disposition of God, with the counsel of himself and the Brethren, in order to improve things he took up — reluctantly — the silver for repair; thus St. Marcellus, relieving his own from poverty, protected them with whatever providence he could.

[4] But the Abbot, troubled in his conscience, was tormented all day long by a burning scruple: for he did not know what the stripped casket contained, he orders a new one to be made: and therefore he feared he had incurred the danger of no small offense. Moved by fear of this offense, he hastened after no long time to renew the casket. And because nothing is hastened quickly enough for one who wills it, having barely procured silver, he undertook the fabrication. Before it was complete, he went out to the Bishop of Cambrai, Lietbert, and proceeded to narrate how the matter had been handled.

[5] Then, having sought and obtained permission to open the casket, so that what was hidden from mortals might be brought forth in public to the glory of God, he opens the casket of relics, he returned to the monastery with joy and blessing. Nor did he suffer the matter once taken up to be postponed for long: enjoining a fast upon the Brethren and himself, he appointed a day without much delay: and the delay of the day was only for the purpose of praying and beseeching God, lest they should approach so great a treasure unprepared. When the day came, clothed in white robes and stoles, they approached the place with all the preparation they could muster, with all the veneration they owed, namely with tears and litanies and the greatest contrition of heart.

[6] When the casket was opened, tears were immediately doubled with joy: A sweet odor breathes from it: for so great a sweetness of fragrance came forth, as if they were standing in a paradise of delight. Bones appeared; it was not yet known whose. All minds and eyes hung in suspense about whose they might be. When the inscription found with them was read, the scruple of their uncertainty was immediately removed: for the words, recited in the hearing of those present, the relics of St. Marcellus are recognized: declared that the casket contained St. Marcellus the Martyr, Bishop of the Roman See, translated there in the time of Dagobert, as has been described, but neglected through the change of times. When these things were perceived, joy was renewed with sobs and tears, and the casket was again closed with great care of sealing and signing. They departed: the Abbot returned to the Bishop, joyfully asked for his blessing, and gladly set forth the entire matter in order. The Bishop was amazed, and marveling, he rejoiced; and had not the authority of the Abbot inclined him, he could scarcely have been induced to believe that so great a treasure lay hidden in that place. But the attestation of the inscription also removed every scruple of incredulity.

[7] Immediately, therefore, the course of action was discussed between them: the deposition of the holy Martyr in the newly fabricated casket was arranged, they are placed in a new casket, and the Nativity of the holy Mother of God Mary, which falls on the 6th of the Ides of September, was appointed as the day of reposition. Many gathered, some following the Bishop, others Count Baldwin and his Countess, and more still for love of St. Marcellus; all in common, however, to pray for the mercy of God and of the holy Martyr. On that day, indeed, it was the will of Him who foresees and disposes all things to manifest the presence of St. Marcellus there. When the holy limbs had been placed in the casket prepared for them, the people commonly asked that they might be allowed to venerate the holy Martyr with prayers and offerings in a more spacious area outside the church. He was brought out, A great crowd gathers at the relics, carried with a crowd of clergy and people, and placed on a stand in the courtyard before the portico of the church. The people flowed around and frequented the Martyr with devotion: and although there was scarcely room for anyone to come and go, they nevertheless sought with prayers wherever they could, and enriched the relics with gifts. The throng of those pressing forward grew, the mass of those approaching became denser, the courtyard by no means able to contain the swarms of those streaming in. And now the multitude of the whole assembled people stood all around, and as devotion drew near, from heaven the glorification of the holy Martyr smiled.

CHAPTER III. Miracles performed at the relics.

[8] A certain girl was brought to the place by her parents, mute from birth, Wilesendis, deaf and mute, is healed, with her ears stricken deaf, and she was prostrated in prayer before the Saint; and because she could not with her voice, she pierced heaven with her intention. Her prayers were admitted into the sanctuary of hearing, and she was heard to the glory of so great a Confessor. Almost every creature offered its service, that the presence of the Martyr might be manifested. The sky thundered, the ground grew dark, the courtyard was shadowed, and the shrine on which the girl lay was shaken by the crash. But she was silent and motionless, feeding on sobbing groans. The eyes of the bystanders were fixed, and in their fixity they awaited the outcome of the event. At last, when the sky was sweetly cleared of clouds, and the courtyard below was more brightly illuminated, the girl too was divinely illuminated, and she immediately arose standing, with her eyes dried, looking at those looking at her, hearing those clamoring, speaking to those speaking to her.

[9] They ran to the Bishop, who had begun a discourse on the passion of the Martyr before the people, preaching to them: and as if to announce something new, one came after another; the speech was interrupted and the glorification of the Martyr was narrated. Then the girl too was led forward, and with downcast face, by the grace of her maidenly modesty, she stood in the midst of those present, the tongue that attested her recovery. Asked her name, she clearly stated that she was called Wilesendis; and when questioned about her birthplace, she unhesitatingly said Squilinus. But even so she was not believed. The Priest of Squilinus was summoned and questioned, and with the people of his parish testifying well, he confirmed that she had always been deaf and mute. O Teacher of teachers, thus reforming the imperfect work of nature for his own glory, that she might receive the fullness of both faculties in a single moment.

[10] Accordingly, the Bishop, resuming his speech, magnified at greater length before the people with tears the deed that had been done, Thanks are rendered to God, while the Count and his nobles hung upon his words. And when the hour of Mass arrived, he ordered the relics, now so fittingly glorified, to be carried into the monastery, gloriously intoning the hymn Te Deum laudamus. When this was finished, Mass was celebrated; when it was done, the people were dismissed with the episcopal blessing. The day of this celebration was for the Bishop a day of devotion, and until evening there was no other food for him than the work of administering Confirmation to the people. Interrupted also by merely the interval of the night, he returned to the same office at the dawn of the succeeding day. And so, having taken leave of St. Marcellus and received the Apostolic blessing, he departed dutifully, with joy and exultation.

[11] And as the fame of the deeds continued to grow, sweetly penetrating not only the ears but also the hearts of those who heard, the report of the event at length reached Gominiacum. There was a certain woman there, named Rathscendis, A certain woman, crippled in all her limbs, is healed, a woman, I say, not in form but in semblance; in face and sex, but not in the use of her limbs. She lay there, shapeless matter, begging for nothing except death, which those in such a condition always desire. Thus for three years she had been contracted in hands and feet, all her limbs having fallen away from their office; she could not turn one side to relieve the other. Whatever holy places she had heard were renowned for miracles, she had visited them, carried there on feet bound by infirmity. Her friends grew weary of escorting her; because the grace of her recovery was reserved by all for St. Marcellus, whom, on the advice of her relatives, she determined as a last resort in her afflictions to seek out, and in tearful devotion she vowed the vow of going. Nor after the vow did healing delay: her feet and hands were restored, and attempting to rise, she found the effort easy. She sought Hautmont, she sought St. Marcellus, the physician of her ailment. Having attested before him the restoration of her health, and after the satisfaction of prayer and offering, she returned to her home, not on others' feet but on her own, having experienced the Apostolic blessing.

CHAPTER IV. The relics carried around, as far as Soignies.

[12] After these and other events, the report of Apostolic renown began to spread more widely. Neighbors frequented the place, The relics are carried through more remote places, honored the Saint as best they could, and burdened their hearts with vows. But those more remote from the place, because the impediments of many affairs prevented them from gathering there, united in a single petition that the relics of the Martyr might be brought to them. At their request, and with certain necessities of ecclesiastical benefit intervening, episcopal permission was sought, from whom a pastoral decree immediately issued that they should be carried with honor and an escort. And so a monastic, clerical, and popular procession was organized, and an expedition was dispatched as if on imperial orders. Peoples poured forth, boys bearing bows advanced, and from every direction roads were seen hastening to the glory of the Saint.

[13] After being carried around through several villages in passing, the relics were brought to Hauchin. Hauchin is a village never so greatly honored by the presence of all its inhabitants as it was glorified by the single and momentary transit of St. Marcellus. But in what manner and in what respect? Not through older men, A mute boy's voice is restored, but through a single boy. The boy was seven years old, mute and speechless from the womb of his long-suspected mother. There the Saint met the infirmity; the imperfect met the perfect; the emptying of nature met the fullness of heavenly medicine. Christ was the physician, the Saint the mediator, the boy the one to be healed. The mother came with tears; with her the son, the cause of her heartfelt tears, ignorant indeed of his condition, but the grief and groaning of his wretched mother. The mother prayed, prayed and cried out in silence, and the condition of similar and common misery reconciled the people to her. She herself was the voice of the mute, the hearing of the deaf, and whatever nature had supplied deficiently in the son, she pitifully supplied by weeping and wailing. O bowels of a mother, never empty of the bowels of compassion! Do not weep, mother, do not weep, for shortly you shall have cause for joy. Already heaven opens, already the sanctuary of mercy is unlocked to your prayers. Already a word is sent down from heaven to your son, through which he may receive hearing as well. This event did not come about by any chance, but was reserved by divine permission for the glory of God and the manifestation of his Martyr. Place your son beneath the casket, and you shall receive him restored. Need I say more? It was done without delay. He was placed beneath, prayer was offered for him, and immediately he sprang up and spoke, declaring that he had recovered his hearing, and for the sake of reward he followed the Saint.

[14] Then, in the course of the journey, Soignies proved to be the place of hospitality; The relics of St. Marcellus are brought to Soignies, and the grace of hospitality, among such great hosts — namely the Martyr and the Confessor — was most beautiful. St. Marcellus rejoiced in the worthy reception by the one who had once translated him: and St. Vincent rejoiced in the hospitality of his Martyr, whom he had once transferred from the city of Rome and placed over the Church of Hautmont, at the time when through such servants God was preparing a kingdom in eternal blessedness. Wherefore due devotion was shown to him, and a devout procession went forth: for the visitation of so great a guest gladdened the Clergy not a little.

[15] Receiving him with the greatest officiousness, they overflowed with every kind of hospitality toward their own. And because they had labored the whole day traveling, refreshment was necessary for them. Nor did providers fail — the same Clergy, cheerful in providing, but as the outcome later proved, even more cheerful in giving. When they had lavished upon them the necessaries, everything was supplied most abundantly, except a libation of wine, which, by relieving rough spots and driving away cares, is accustomed to gladden the hearts of men. Before their eyes there was a double misfortune, for neither was it absent nor was it present; for had they known it was entirely absent, they might have borne it more easily: for by chance, or rather by God's disposition, the tavern-keeper was away, and no one was left at home except his daughter, The wine cellar opens of its own accord, with the doors of the tavern closed and locked. When the Clergy wished to open the doors, the girl resisted with what opposition she could. But a certain Baldwin, making light of her resistance, when he wished to force the doors open in his joy, St. Marcellus anticipated his will by the bolt springing back of its own accord, through him and through the rest pouring out wine to his own people more freely. They supped, went to sleep, rose at dawn, celebrated Matins, and resumed the journey they had begun.

CHAPTER V. The relics are brought to Namur.

[16] After several days they arrived at Namur: where they were received with the reverence due to the Saint: The relics of St. Marcellus are brought to Namur. the Saint was placed in the church, and they themselves obtained lodging opposite. And because they were suffering some fraud there in ecclesiastical matters, for which they seemed to have undertaken the journey, they attended first to the affairs of the Church, and afterward to their own needs. When they turned to serious business after their meal, and the guards kept watch through the night before the Saint, while the lamp burned rather dimly, the Priest Willebert ordered a boy to trim the wick and make the candle brighter. He obeyed, but by careless handling he carried off the flame of the lamp. The Priest, annoyed, as is the way with such people, threatened to box his ears unless he lit the candle more quickly. By his aid an extinguished candle is relit. But the boy, stumbling as he descended the steps, cried out tearfully: I know not where to go. God knows, and St. Marcellus. He spoke, and the Saint taking pity, the lamp in his hands lit up and illuminated the entire church. And crying out with joy, he said to the Priest: I give thanks to God and to St. Marcellus, through whom the threatened box on the ears is thwarted for me.

[17] Departing thence and shortening the journey they had begun, they returned home. Their people came out to meet them and received their protector with joy. Where, having been placed with due veneration, he was present to all who asked with pious protection; he was sought out by many: among whom a woman came, pressing the Saint with prayers and tears. A blind woman receives her sight. She was from the district of Cambrai, named Dominica, who for several years, having lost her sight through the torment of illness, wherever she had heard that the sick were aided by the merits of the Saints, had sought the gift of restoration for her blindness. But because by God's disposition her healing had not yet come to the place of his compassion, when she heard of the mercies that were being wrought at Hautmont through St. Marcellus, she directed her mind and her steps there. Nor was she disappointed in the desire of her hope: for having prostrated herself on the ground before the holy altar, she pierced heaven with her effectual prayer: grace followed, sent down from the sanctuary of heavenly compassion. For rising from prayer and standing with groans, not remote from the compassion of those around her, blood immediately flowing from the orbits of her eyes, by divine mercy she received that desirable gift of friendly sight. Blindness fled the place, and welcome clarity was restored: she learned with her eyes what she had presumed by her vows. People ran to tell the Brethren, the deed was quickly spread among the people, it was recounted to those who came, and God was praised by all.