Martyrs Speusippus

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS SPEUSIPPUS, ELEUSIPPUS, MELEUSIPPUS, TRIPLETS;

LEONILLA, JONILLA, NEON, TURBON.

Speusippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Eleusippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Melasippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Leonilla, grandmother of the triplets, Martyr (St.) Neonilla, Martyr (St.) Neon, Martyr (St.) Turbon, Martyr (St.)

From various sources.

Section I. The veneration, acts, and era of the Triplets.

[1] Most celebrated in the sacred calendar is the memorial of the holy triplet brothers on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of February, on which day Usuard writes: At Langres, the birthday of the holy Twins Speusippus, The birthday of these Saints: Elasippus, and Melasippus, who, being twenty-five years of age, together with their grandmother Leonilla, and Jonilla, and Neon, were crowned with martyrdom in the time of the Emperor Aurelian. The same is treated by most manuscripts, and likewise by the published Bede, Ado, Rabanus, Notker, Maurolycus, Galesinius, Canisius, Bellinus, the Roman Martyrology, Felicius, Saussaius; most of whom add Turbon. The most ancient manuscript Martyrology of St. Jerome has thus: At Langres, the passion of the holy twins Speusippus, Elasippus, Melasippus, Leonilla, Junilla, Neno. The Dungal manuscript: Of the three brothers, Speusepi, Helapi, Munici. The most ancient Rhinau manuscript: At Langres, the passion of the holy twin Martyrs. Wandalbert:

And let the sixteenth of January be dedicated to the virtue of Antony: This day also shines with the associated honor of the Twins, Whom the people of Langres celebrate, covered by a single tomb.

[2] Scarcely will you find the names of any Saints written in such varied forms. For Speusippus names variously written: is also called Speusepus, Speosippus, Sensippus, Speusipus, Spensippus, Peusippus, Speusipius; which name Speusippus signifies an inciter of horses. But Eleusippus, meaning one who comes or contends on horseback, is also written Elensippus, Eleusipus, Heleusippus, Eleusipius, Helapus, Eleosippus, and (not improperly, as if an instigator of horses) Elasippus. Melasippus, in turn, appears as Meleusippus, Maleusipus, Melensippus, Meleusipus, Municus, Meleosippus, Malensippus, Mesippus. Leonilla also as Leovilla, Lonilla, Neonila, Neovilla. Jonilla, however, as Jovilla, Conilla, Jeonilla, Lonilla, Lovilla, Innilla, Jonella, Janilla, Junilla. Neon, finally, some call Nero, others Neona, others Neno; the German Martyrology calls Neon female, suspended by the hair like Leonilla and Jonilla, and after enduring other tortures, beheaded.

[3] Ancient Acts; The Acts of these glorious champions are said to have been recorded by St. Neon and Turbon. Whether they survive anywhere, we are unable to determine. Our Rosweyde believed them to be what we here publish, copied by his own hand from a most ancient codex of Marcus Welser, truly outstanding, were they not mutilated. Other Acts we have received from the manuscripts of Saint-Omer, St. Maximin, and St. Mary de Ripatorio, which Surius published in a somewhat polished form, others by the author Warnaharius: and Mombritius and Cornelius Grasius in an abridged form. The author of these was Warnaharius, whom Molanus calls Wariharius and Galesinius Euariharius. He dedicated them to St. Ceraunius, or Cerannus, Bishop of Paris, who is said to have held his see under Clovis II, before Leudebertus, who was present at the Council of Reims under Sonnatius in the year 630. Galesinius says these later Acts are marred by some errors. Surius admits the same. But Baronius, volume 2, at the year 179, number 37, says: whose Acts of martyrdom survive, genuine indeed, but somewhat corrupted by the injury of time. Most suppose that these are the very Acts which St. Neon originally wrote, which they certainly do not prove to us: Rosweyde believed the Welser text to be Neon's; nor is that clear.

[4] What Baronius chiefly complains was corrupted in them is the chronological marker, since they are said to have suffered under the Emperor Aurelian in the time of St. Polycarp; when they suffered: whereas Polycarp is known to have undergone martyrdom in the seventh year of Marcus Aurelius, which was the year of Christ 168; while Aurelian obtained the empire in the year 270. Baronius therefore restored "Aurelius" in place of "Aurelian"; in whose time, he says, from Quartus the Governor, who is named there, these men are known to have suffered. For Quartus served as a Consular in Rome in the times of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus; he also held the consulship together with Lucius Verus. But it is not Quartus who is named as Governor in the Acts, but Quadratus; although also the one whom Baronius writes held the consulship with Lucius Verus was not Quartus but T. Numidius Quadratus, in the year of Christ 167. But how does it follow that this is the same Quadratus who is listed among the Leading Men and Judges of the people of Langres by Warnaharius? Almost all Martyrologies (except the Roman, corrected by Baronius, and a certain manuscript of the monastery of St. Maximin) have not Aurelius but Aurelian. Ado, Notker, Maurolycus, Felicius, and some manuscripts, however, record that they were converted by St. Benignus, a disciple of St. Polycarp, and killed under Aurelian; which details are not mutually consistent.

[5] In the earlier life, neither Aurelian nor St. Polycarp is mentioned; nor are they said to have suffered at Langres, but in Cappadocia. where. The Greek Menaea and Maximus of Cythera support this; for on January 16 they have thus: On the same day, of the holy Martyrs and brothers Peusippus, Elasippus, and Mesippus, and of Neonila their grandmother.

Though they are horsemen by the signification of their names, Yet the Triplets run on foot to the flame. And Neonila, an old woman, endures the monstrous pyre As if she were some vigorous young maiden.

They were from Cappadocia, born of one birth, excellently trained to break horses and to wheel them on the plain. When they had once invited their grandmother to a feast while celebrating the solemnity of Jupiter Nemesius in their homeland, she, thoroughly instructed in the faith of Christ, set before them His dispensation toward us, and derided the idols of the pagans. That discourse immediately became for them an occasion of salvation: for each one recalled the dreams which had been presented to them the preceding night, opening the way, as it were, to the faith of Christ. Suddenly, therefore, demolishing the idols and confessing Christ with the utmost freedom, they were cast into the fire by their masters and received the crown of martyrdom. Maximus narrates nearly the same. The Acts relate that the grandmother Leonilla alone was struck by the sword: certain Martyrologies say she was tortured with many punishments together with Neonilla and Neon: the Menaea record here that she endured the torment of fire. As for the fact that her triplet grandsons are said to have been hurled into the fire by their masters, understand this to mean the Governors and rulers of the state.

[6] On the homeland, Raderus comments briefly in his manuscript Notes on the Menaea: They suffered in Cappadocia, Raderus's judgment on the place. and were translated to the territory of the Lingones, who according to Livy are among the Celtic peoples between the Po and the Alps. But he errs doubly: for the Italian Lingones did not dwell between the Alps and the Po; nor did the Triplets fall to their lot, whether alive or by the transport of their remains thither. Livy, book 5: Then the Boii and Lingones crossed by the Pennine Pass; and since everything between the Po and the Alps was already occupied, they crossed the Po on rafts and drove out not only the Etruscans but also the Umbrians from the land: yet they kept within the Apennines. Nor is there much mention of them elsewhere, so that you might conjecture they were a small people, obscured by the name of the Boii. But the Lingones who were ennobled either by the birth or the relics of the Triplets are in Transalpine Gaul, still celebrated to this day, whose capital, situated near the sources of the River Marne in the province of First Lugdunensis, is called Langres in French.

Section II. Relics translated to Ellwangen.

[7] On other days too, mention is made of these holy Martyrs in Martyrologies, Their commemoration, January 9. either because the office was transferred from here to there, or on account of some translation. Saussaius in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology on January 9 records them, or at least Leonilla, Jonilla (whom he wrongly makes a daughter of Leonilla), Neon, and Turbon; and he reports that Leonilla was buried at Dijon in the same crypt where she had interred St. Benignus the Martyr with much reverent ceremony. But it is not plausible that St. Benignus was killed before Leonilla, as we shall say on November 1.

[8] In the Calendar of the monastery of St. John at Capua, which Michael the Monk cites, they are recorded on January 18, on which day Galesinius writes: At Lyon, of St. Peusepus and companion Martyrs, 18th and 19th of the same; who are crowned under Aurelian Caesar. Ferrarius has the same. Both cite Mombritius, who narrates the Acts of St. Speusippus and companions. The manuscript Florarium on that day: The Discovery and dedication of the holy Martyrs Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus. Ferrarius again, on January 19, from Canisius: At Ellwangen in Swabia, of the holy Twins: indeed Triplets, whom we shall presently say are venerated at Ellwangen, but on January 17. Finally the same Ferrarius on February 18: February 18. At Lyon, of the holy Martyrs Speusippus and companions. On September 18, the manuscript Florarium: Likewise, the discovery and dedication of the holy Martyrs Speusippus, September 18. Eleusippus, and Meleusippus. Mention of this discovery, and of the dedication of their basilica, is made at the end of the Acts by Warnaharius: if these were written by him, some earlier discovery of the Triplets occurred, unknown to us. Peter de Natali: The bodies of all of whom, long hidden, were in the course of time discovered and entombed with fitting honor.

[9] A century after the age of Warnaharius, their remains were translated into Swabia. The author of the life of St. Anno, in Surius on December 4, Their bodies translated to Ellwangen. book 1, chapter 38, attests: In Swabia, in a place called the Cell of St. Vitus, a certain Duke of the Alamanni and Burgundians once established a church and made it abound with his hereditary possessions for the sustenance of monks serving God there. Instructed equally in devotion and faith, when he had come to Dijon out of zeal for holy relics, on his return he carried away with him the body of the most beloved Martyr of God, Benignus: who, divinely sent from the East to the lands of Gaul, after many struggles was finally pierced by a soldier's lance under Aurelian Caesar, and penetrated the heavens in the form of a snow-white dove. Those Triplet brothers also, Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus, baptized by the aforesaid Martyr and gloriously crowned at Langres, together with the body of St. Mamertus, Bishop of that city, the same Duke, by Christ's grant, obtained: and returning joyfully with so great a pledge of heavenly patronage to the territories of Alemannia, he consigned this desirable treasure to the church which he had built. Cornelius Grasius narrates the same in other words.

[10] That Duke was the Blessed Hariolph, whose life, written by Ermenric, The site of Ellwangen, or at least the origins of the monastery of Ellwangen, we shall give on August 13. Ellwangen is a magnificent monastery and town of Swabia, on the Jagst River, in the district called Virguna, commonly Virngrund. Bruschius calls it Elephanciacum and Elefancense; Crusius, in the Swabian Annals, book 11, part 1, Elephanticum and Elephancense; others Ellwancense and Ellwangense. Crusius reports that the name derives from a moose (which we call Ellend or Elland in German) captured there; name. and that in memory of the event, on solemn feasts the Gospels are customarily sung in that church with the book placed on the lectern covered in a rough moose hide. foundation. Bruschius writes that the monastery of Ellwangen was founded in the year 764, and then contradicting himself says that the second Abbot Victerbus died in the year 752. Crusius says it was founded in the year 754. From Ermenric it is clear that the bodies of the holy Martyrs Sulpitius and Servilianus were given by Pope Adrian to the Blessed Bishop Erlolf, and thus translated here to Ellwangen for his brother Lord Hariolph; but Pope Adrian was created Pontiff in the year 772. Perhaps Erlolf the brother received the relics of the holy Triplets from the same source; unless, as some report, he himself succeeded his brother in the Bishopric of Langres and bestowed that treasure on his monastery.

[11] Moreover, the Triplets are venerated at Ellwangen as secondary Patrons (the principal one being St. Vitus, The feast of the Triplets there. as we shall say on June 15) with a double rite of the second class with an octave, as is evident from the proper offices of that Church, confirmed in 1631 by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Concerning the Translation, at the end of the sixth Lesson the following is recorded: Whose bodies, together with some relics of St. Desiderius, Bishop and Martyr, were translated from the city of Langres to Ellwangen by the Blessed Hariolph and his brother Erlolph, Bishops of Langres, and rest in the collegiate church of St. Vitus.

ACTS

from an ancient manuscript of M. Welser.

Speusippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Eleusippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Melasippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Leonilla, grandmother of the triplets, Martyr (St.) Neonilla, Martyr (St.) Neon, Martyr (St.) Turbon, Martyr (St.)

BHL Number: 7828

From manuscripts.

CHAPTER I.

The Triplets variously invited to the faith.

[1] The Triplets exercise horses. Three boys who were brothers, like three roses blooming from a single stem, so these, born at once from one womb, excelled both in the grace of their appearance and in the progress of their wisdom. Their greatest care was this: to raise horses and to enlarge their household. Their grandmother, Leonilla by name, had learned medicine thoroughly, and being carefully trained in its lore, Leonilla their grandmother, skilled in medicine. was regarded as incomparable. The aforesaid three boys, her grandsons, were both excellent trainers of horses and incomparable riders. With the swiftest course they rode almost daily to a place called Pasmasus, in which stood the Goddess Nemesis, whom the pagans worshipped with superstition.

[2] When therefore they had invited their grandmother Leonilla to their feast, and had set before her, as though for blessings, what they had brought from the sacrifices of Nemesis, she refuses meats offered to Nemesis: Leonilla their grandmother said: So thoroughly have you been educated in all wisdom, that you do not know that the worship of idols has always been an enemy of human salvation, and binds souls to eternal punishments in Tartarus? I am a handmaid of Christ, instructs her grandsons in the faith. who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all things that are in them; who after the dark and blind night commanded the light to come forth, divided the rising and setting of the sun, established the days, arranged the seasons, appointed the course of the moon to travel through the streets of heaven at fixed turning-points of its path, adorned the heavens also with stars shining in varied brilliance, established the mountains, opened springs, spread out the plains, gave perpetual courses to the rivers, brought forth fruits from the trees, produced clusters from the vines, supplied groves of olives with the grace of richness both for refreshment and for light; released the clouds on their course, that they might flow where the blasts of the winds, as He Himself commanded, directed them; which now temper the world with a milder warmth, now penetrate it with stiffening cold, that they might impart fertility to the fields and protect the well-being of all living things: by His will we live, by His nourishing we are fed, by His dominion we are clothed. This God I worship, and I urge you to worship Him. For Nemesis is an idol, which is abhorred by God who is in heaven. For you ought to know God the Creator of all things, that you may come out of darkness into light, Their mother was a Christian, their father a pagan. and rise from death to life. For I instructed your mother in this faith, who, when she had brought forth you three at once in a single birth into the world, in the third year after your birth was bidden to depart from this world and hasten to the next. After her death, your father was a hindrance to you, so that you were unable to attain the truth and to arrive at the harbor of salvation from the storms of the demons. But now all hindrances have been removed, and wisdom reigns in your minds, and I speak nothing from my mouth that you do not more plainly recognize. And therefore I beseech you, second fruit of my womb, open your eyes to heaven, and cast away the worship of all idols as an enemy of your salvation, that you may be able to arrive at eternal joys.

[3] When Leonilla had said these things, the boys stood amazed, looking one at another, The Triplets are converted, and shedding tears they began to say: O sweetest grandmother, where until now have you hidden this truth from our souls? She answered them: Because your father could never consent to this truth, therefore I kept silence, lest the word of God, which I might have sown in your minds, should be unable, with him forbidding it, to bear fruit.

[4] Then the three brothers recalled the visions which they had seen in the night each previously invited to this by a different and wondrous dream: that had passed, and Speusippus cried out and said: I saw myself in a vision of the past night in the bosom of my grandmother, who, pouring her breast full of milk upon my lips, said: Speusippus, drink the milk, for in the contest and in the struggle when you come to it, the more you drink, the more strongly and swiftly you will conquer. And when Speusippus had said this, Eleusippus said: Believe that I too saw a vision of this kind: I saw one seated in heaven upon a great throne fashioned of amber and gems; and while fear held me, so that I shielded my eyes from the exceeding splendor, he called me to himself, saying: Do not be afraid: you will conquer your enemy, and when you have conquered, you will attain the palms. And when Elasippus had related this, Melasippus cried out, saying: I too saw a vision, and I know not what King was purchasing us. He was writing our deeds of manumission in gold, and granting our freedom at the same time, he enlisted all three of us in military service, girded us with belts, clothed us in military cloaks, saying: Your grandmother has offered me such gifts, and has poured forth such prayers for you day and night, through herself and through my friends, that you may serve in my palace. And when I was gladly listening to what was being said to us, with a joyful countenance the King said to me: Melasippus, I have prepared immortal horses for you and your brothers.

CHAPTER II.

Having overturned the idols, they are more fully instructed.

[5] And saying these things, the three brothers were amazed at one another, and could not hold back their tears; saying that their visions had been so bound by the chain of forgetfulness that unless their grandmother had spoken these words to them, what they now saw would not at all have returned to their memory. Then with one accord they said to their grandmother: Show us what we must do, that we may worship this God who is the true one. At their grandmother's instruction, Leonilla said to them: Let the army of the Emperor teach you what it does to a tyrant and his satellites, in order to please its King; and you, in order to please the heavenly King, do the same to the devil, who is the true tyrant, and to his satellites, that is, the demons who dwell in idols. There were in their house twelve temples, they overturn the idols. in which there were twelve images, in which they offered sacrifices on individual days in individual months. Coming together unanimously with their servants, they cast down the idols, breaking them to bits, and razed their temples to the foundations: and the meats that had been sacrificed they threw to the dogs.

[6] The grandmother gives thanks to God. Then Leonilla, placing her knees on the ground and stretching out her hands to heaven, said: These are Your works, O Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which our God and Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed to You in the Gospels, saying: I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to little ones. Matt. 11:25. Luke 10:21. For behold, You have revealed Your kingdom to little ones, and having strengthened their minds, You have heard my prayer, and have freed the souls of my grandsons, and have loosened with Your hands their senses that were bound to vain images.

[7] Then she went to St. Macarius the Confessor, who had been sent in exile from Antioch to a prison in Cappadocia, on Mount Athar, which is in the suburb of the city of Nazianzus, who by his prayers caused water to flow on that very mountain; for previously the exiles condemned in that place carried their water from the ninth milestone. She therefore brought her grandsons to him: and he, receiving them, Brought to St. Macarius, they are taught by him the mystery of the Trinity. taught them all the mysteries of the Catholic faith, the unity of the Trinity, the truth of the Godhead, the equality of omnipotence — nothing greater, nothing less — the same substance, majesty, and Deity; that the Father is truly Father, who begot the Son, as light from light, a river from a spring, as a word from a voice, as sound from a word, as reason from counsel, as joy from good news; that the Son is from that from which the Father is, as a river from that from which a spring is. Which river, even if it be taught that it began to flow later, was nevertheless always the impulse in the heart of the spring. For a spring could never be without water, just as the Father was never without the Son: as a word from a voice; for from whatever source comes the voice, from the same comes the word. So too reason from counsel; from whatever source comes counsel, from the same comes reason: and joy from good news; from whatever source comes good news, from the same comes joy. For this reason the Gospel is also interpreted as "good news," because it bestowed joy on the weeping, liberty on slaves, redemption on captives, restored light to the blind, hearing to the deaf, salvation... here (alas!) one leaf had been cut out.

[12] Melasippus responds nobly to the Governor. Hermogenes says to him: Fool, do you think our delays are idle? You will not perish as you wish. Melasippus said: The choir of Christians awaits us. We wish to arrive, if not at the sixth hour, then at the ninth: if not at the ninth, then at the eleventh, that we too, like those who are proved to have labored before us, may receive the reward of martyrdom. Quadratus says to him: Wretch, you see your death before your eyes, and you speak without fear? Melasippus said: We do not see death, but we see our life, our Lord Jesus Christ, looking upon us with a joyful countenance, whom you cannot see, because your eyes are full of the darkness of idols.

CHAPTER IV.

They are crowned with martyrdom, together with their grandmother and others.

[13] Then they order their grandmother Leonilla to be brought, and calling her, they say to her privately: The grandmother, ordered to call them back from the faith, confirms them in it. Go to your grandsons, and tell them to put aside the vanity of their minds, and rebuild the temples, and restore the gods, so that they may be loved even more than they have always been loved. Leonilla said to them: I will go, and I will persuade them to live. And when Leonilla had come to them, approaching with a joyful countenance, she kissed them and said: O lambs without blemish, set in the midst of wolves, be wise as serpents and simple as doves, in the gentleness of Christ: let no difficulty terrify you, let no punishments dismay you: for to be slain for Christ is greater than to assume a kingdom. For the kingdom of this world is mortal, but that life is eternal.

[14] Then they commanded the three boys to be suspended on a single tree, binding their hands upward and their feet downward, and stretched their limbs with creaking pulleys to such an extent that their bones were visible, Stretched out, they exult in their torments: and the sinews were extended as on a harp. But they, with sweat upon their faces, gave thanks to God with silent voices. Then Quadratus said: Where is your God? Speusippus said: He is here, and He Himself helps us, so that from your punishments we not only do not grieve, but even laugh. Palmatus said: Unhappy and wretched men, with one mind you hasten to the destruction of your death. Elasippus said: One womb bore us on one day, one mother gave three sons to the world, one tree has delivered three Martyrs to God. Quadratus said: You will not die on this tree, but today fire will consume you. Melasippus said to him: What single fire will there be that will deliver our trinity to the triune God as a sacrifice?

[15] Then, at the command of Palmatus, Hermogenes, and Quadratus, a great fire was kindled. But while those carrying the wood delayed, the brothers turned to their grandmother and said: Be ever mindful of us in your prayers, and when you receive food and break the bread, and crumbs begin to fall from the broken piece, gather the crumbs from the table, and remember our names, that we too may taste of the crumbs from the table of our King, because upon the face of the earth we have not been washed, baptized only in their own blood. that we might taste bread from His table. Leonilla said to them: Be sated, for your blood will wash you, and your confession clothes you in white garments. And straightway you recline at the table of your King among the invited guests, because you have received the wedding garment in martyrdom. For from that day you were baptized, from the day when you broke the idols and, believing in God, received the word of life within your soul. For just as if someone is baptized and does not believe with his whole heart, the water of baptism not only does not remove the sins he had, but begins to add to him the guilt and crime of his unbelief; so whoever believes with his whole heart, if baptism is lacking to him, it does not exclude him from the number of the faithful: For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rom. 10:10.

[16] Cast into the fire, they are not harmed: Therefore, as they heard her and believed, they were thrown into the midst of the fire with their hands and feet bound. Immediately, just as we read of the three Hebrews, their bonds were broken, and they began to stand in prayer and to give thanks to God. For the flame was raised up in the form of an arch to the clouds, but they remained immovable, admonishing their servants and saying: See that you are not seduced by them, and do not fear vain men, and do not approach their sacrifice at all. Those carrying the wood failed. Dan. 3. They ordered torches, oil, pitch, and wax to be thrown in, all of which burned, but the fire did not touch the servants of the Lord in any way whatsoever.

[17] But when the fires and the wood were exhausted, the Saints began to taunt their Judges, they taunt the Judges: to whom they also said: The Lord our God has given us power, whether we wish to depart from the body or not: and we asked Him that when the fire failed, we might taunt your perfidy, which He deigned to grant us. Behold, now exulting we depart, having no scar from your fire on our bodies. they die in prayer. And saying these things, they fell on their knees in prayer and breathed forth their spirits, like lambs still bearing the voice of blessing on their lips.

[18] In that hour, a certain Junilla, holding a small child, cast it aside, Junilla, a Christian, is suspended, and cried out saying: I am a Christian. I believe in my one God, Jesus Christ, the immortal and perpetual King. The enraged officials ordered her to be suspended by her hair with her hands behind her back, saying: Unless you promise to deny Christ and to eat of the sacrifices, you will not be taken down from there. Her husband approached her, saying: she spurns her husband's blandishments, My Junilla, good wife, have pity on me and on your infant son. To whom do you abandon him? She answered: I gave birth to a small child, but God created me: whom ought I to put first — my little child before my Creator, or my Creator, she is beheaded together with Leonilla. who both created me and will judge me? But for the terror of others, she was quickly ordered to be led to the village of Orbatus, and together with Leonilla, the grandmother of the Saints, to be beheaded.

[19] Neon the Recorder overturns the idols, But Neon the Recorder, who had written down those very proceedings, closing his books in which he had recorded them, handed them to his colleague Turbon, and ran to the statue of Nemesis, cast it down, and broke its marble to pieces, and smashed all the small idols that were around it. When the temple guards reported this deed, they held him, beating and stoning him he is killed. until, having confessed the Son of God, he breathed out his spirit.

[20] Turbon is killed. Turbon, writing the victories of those who confessed the Lord — Speusippus, Elasippus and Melasippus, Leonilla, Jonilla, and Neon — not long afterward suffered martyrdom. These aforesaid suffered on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of February, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

OTHER ACTS

BY THE AUTHOR WARNAHARIUS,

from three ancient manuscripts.

Speusippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Eleusippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Melasippus, triplet brother, Martyr (St.) Leonilla, grandmother of the triplets, Martyr (St.) Neonilla, Martyr (St.) Neon, Martyr (St.) Turbon, Martyr (St.)

BHL Number: 7829

By the author Warnaharius, from manuscripts.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] To the holy one whom I esteem above myself for his pontifical eminence, the Lord Ceraunius, Pope, Warnaharius sends greetings. Never ceasing to be associated in merits with the foremost persons of the most blessed Bishops, hastening in every conduct of the priesthood to be adorned daily with holy religion, St. Ceraunius, Bishop of Paris, collects the deeds of Saints. you have traversed all the teachings with the zeal of reading divine letters: now in the city of Paris you devoutly intend to gather the deeds of the holy Martyrs, for the increase of your praise, out of love for religion. Whence you are to be equaled in the zeal of emulation with the holy Eusebius of Caesarea, and are to be remembered perpetually with an equal gift of glory. Grant pardon to our inexperience, since we are not able to praise you as much as you would deserve to be esteemed, if eloquence came to our aid. The deeds of the holy Twins, who achieved the precious consummation of martyrdom in the suburb of the city of Langres; and of the most Blessed Desiderius, Martyr and Bishop of that city — know that just as you have commanded in your zeal of devotion, so most eagerly I, your obedient servant, have undertaken these.

CHAPTER I.

The arrival of St. Benignus at Langres.

[2] We are compelled by Christ's authority to disclose with greater diligence the glorious struggles of the Martyrs, which we freely confess were accomplished in the love of His faith. Therefore it is altogether fitting to explain, rather than pass over, with what great rewards the holy three twin brothers, Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleosippus, attained the dignity of martyrdom. It is sufficiently wondrous, and to be celebrated in manifold ways by the predestination of Almighty God. Therefore, pursuing the order of this matter and more carefully considering the benefits of the Giver of graces, let us make the beginning public.

[3] For St. Polycarp, Bishop of Ephesus, perfectly instructed in the teaching of the most blessed Apostle and Evangelist John, filled with the Holy Spirit, desiring to enlarge the soldiery of Christ by the guidance of the faith, directed his disciples to various parts of the world St. Polycarp sends his disciples to various places; to preach the word of our Lord Jesus Christ to the nations with confidence. Hearing therefore that the Emperor Aurelian, after the departure of the impious persecutor Severus, had again aroused a most cruel persecution, and that a worse Prince had succeeded a bad Prince in the kingdom, and that he had promulgated an edict in the provinces of the Gauls before himself and his Governors, and generally among all the people subject to him, and had decreed that all Christians without exception should be punished with various tortures, the Blessed Polycarp dispatched the holy Priests of God, that is, Andochius and Benignus, Presbyters, three holy men into Gaul: and Thyrsus, a Deacon, to that place for the purpose of preaching — men outstanding in virtues, poured out in the love of God, hastening to the contest of the struggle, entirely devoted to undertaking the labors of journeys for the name of Christ, not slow to endure the perils of the sea, cheerfully and eagerly seeking pilgrimages, and gladly leaving their parents for the religion of Christ, desiring rather than fearing the torments of punishment or the passion of a blessed death.

[4] These three men, obedient to the holy commands, boarding a ship, he bids farewell to those departing with blessings, the holy Polycarp bidding the Saints farewell, thus gave them this charge: Go, brave men, fighting bravely in the strength of Christ, win many fellow soldiers through the holy confession of Christ; with whom, triumphing in victory, you may attain a name and the glory of everlasting honor. May the fruits of your labor be multiplied with manifold abundance; may the seats of the just in paradise rejoice exceedingly through you in the acquisition of holy souls. With these and many other prayers St. Polycarp accompanied them.

[5] And they, sailing prosperously under divine guidance, arrived more swiftly at the shores of Marseilles: and going ashore, with the Angel of God preceding them, making a prosperous journey, They are received among the Aedui by Faustus: they entered the city of the Aedui: and there, by the Lord's providence, having found Faustus, a man of most noble family, conspicuous for his senatorial dignity and elevated to the Praetorian office, they were most gratefully received in hospitality by him. When he discovered that they were Priests, he humbly asked that they make his friends and household Christians through the washing of baptism. He indeed worshipped Christ in secret because of the imminent persecution. He also presented his son, the young Symphorian, they baptize his son Symphorian, who by the preaching of the Saints and by divine predestination was to become an illustrious Martyr in succeeding times. And entrusting him to the holy hands to be baptized by St. Benignus and received from the sacred baptismal font by St. Andochius, he prayed most earnestly. And they, eagerly performing the work for which they had come and complying with the requests of so great a man, satisfied his desires in all things through the grace of baptism.

[6] After this, when the aforesaid Faustus had more diligently explored the reason for their mission through a conversation with the holy Priests, divine piety brought to his memory his sister and her grandsons. Then he said to them: I have a full sister named Leonilla, an illustrious matron, a citizen of the city of Langres; who has grandsons through her son, three twin brothers born together in one birth, educated in the liberal arts, but still living in pagan error by paternal tradition; whom their mother desires to unite to the soldiery of Christ. Come to the aid, most holy Priests, of her devotions, St. Benignus is sent to Leonilla, Faustus's sister, and the most noble family of noble lineage, which you have begun. When this was said, the holy men, more attentively considering the matter for which they had come, it pleased both parties to agree on the plan that St. Benignus should hasten to illuminate the territory of Langres, according to the will of God. The holy Andochius and Thyrsus, greatly augmenting the town of Autun with divine preaching, were crowned with a blessed martyrdom not long after under the Prince Aurelian. The aforesaid Faustus therefore sent St. Benignus to his sister as a divine gift, as indeed he was. She received him with all veneration, as it were manna descended from heaven.

e

That city is called Augustodunum, or Augustodunus,

which the Celtic language translates as "the mount of Augustus," as Ericus interprets in the life of St. Germanus of Auxerre. Whence correct what Cornelius Grasius writes, that the Saints went from Aedua to Augustodunum.

CHAPTER II.

The Triplets, at their grandmother's admonition and by dreams, are invited to the faith.

[7] On that same day, therefore, her aforesaid grandsons were offering profane sacrifices with their accustomed rite to the image of the Goddess Nemesis in the field called Pasmasius; and from the superstitious libations they had reserved the remainder for their grandmother: inviting her to the feast, they set before her what they had kept. But she, throwing everything to the dogs, rejected it as dung. She expounds the faith to her grandsons, the Triplets. Then, approaching them from a distance together with St. Benignus, she began to put forth these words: Dearest grandsons, acknowledge that our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God, to whom the Angels and every creature render just service, who established the whole world and composed all the matter of things, poised by the sudden arrangement of His word; who by the same act of sight extended the height of the heavens; who spread wide the manifold spaces of the earth far and wide; who by a momentary decree ordained that the immense sea of the abyss be gathered together and confined within its shores; who painted the heavens with stars, and establishing two principal luminaries, utterly decreed that they should adorn with successive alternation all that He had made, and clothed in light should reveal all things; who granted the whole sea to be traversed for the habitation of fish; who clothed all the earth with diverse trees and grasses; who created all animals that grow or live throughout the world by the same establishment. Lastly, He formed man in His own image and likeness, whom He endowed with the singular gift of wisdom and understanding, so that he might more diligently seek out so great a fabric of worldly magnitude and all that He had wrought, so that he might distinguish good from evil, lest through the negligence of ignorance he should set aside the Author; but so that he should not only not render the worship of veneration to images made by human hands from various metals, devoid of sensation and deprived of all vital breath, fashioned by diabolical invention for the deception of mankind, but that he should even flee from them as unclean things, despising them in every abomination. For it was the perverse invention of him who in the beginning deceived the first man Adam, established in Paradise, through transgression, that fashioned idols in this world. Therefore abandon, dearest grandsons, all idols consecrated to demons, and confess without any hesitation our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things. Believe that this man, St. Benignus, whom you see standing before you, was sent to you by divine mercy from a distant region. Attend therefore to the words of his mouth: for the precepts of God proceed from his mouth; learn from him a teaching more abundant than every gift and above all things beneficial to your salvation.

[8] While St. Leonilla together with St. Benignus was preaching these most salutary words to her grandsons, and the grace divinely inspired was already growing strong in their hearts, they stood equally fixed in wondrous amazement, and looking at one another, considering all that had been said to them, they turned to their grandmother and with one accord said with one voice: Why have you so long held concealed in silence so great and so excellent a thing? Why have you hidden from us the way of truth and the glorious light for so long? She, answering with gentle speech, raising her eyes and stretching her hands to heaven, giving thanks to God, said: My son, your father, persevered in such hardness of heart that, plunged into a hellish seat, darkened by the mist of sins, deprived of all wisdom and blinded by the counsel of perversity, he neither believed in Christ the Lord nor ever wished to confess Him. What could the divine word profit him, whose inner heart the malice of unbelief entirely possessed, and who, surrounded by the darkness of idols, could not see the true light? He compelled me to keep the silence of taciturnity until now, while I feared lest by his hostile persuasion he might cause you to deviate perpetually from the right path. But by the will of God, with his passing all impediments have been removed. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Open therefore the eyes of your heart and body, looking rather to heaven; root out utterly from your souls the worship of idols, hostile to your salvation, being filled with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may be able to attain eternal joys.

[9] While the Blessed Leonilla together with St. Benignus had narrated these and many other things to her grandsons, so that divine mercy might make manifest in them the signs of belief, [Each had been taught beforehand of his conversion and struggle by a mystical dream.] they recalled the visions which they had seen the preceding night. First Speusippus said: I saw myself in a vision of the preceding night in the bosom of my grandmother, who, pouring her breast full of milk upon my lips, said: Speusippus, drink the milk, because in the contest and struggle when you come to it, the more you drink, the more strongly and swiftly you will conquer. And when Speusippus had said this, Eleusippus said: Believe that I too saw a vision of this kind: I saw one seated in heaven upon a great throne, as it were of amber and gems, radiant with the power of majesty, whose immense splendor overshadowed my sight, and on account of excessive awe, fear disturbed the understanding of my heart. Then he, calling me to him with a serene countenance, said: Do not be afraid, you will merit the crown of victory. In the third place Meleusippus set forth his vision: I too saw a certain great King, holding extraordinary scepters. He was summoning all three of us to his military service, girding us with splendid belts, redeeming us with a great price from the bond of captivity, writing the rewards of our perpetual liberty in golden letters, recompensing us simultaneously with unfailing gifts. In addition, he added these words to encourage me, saying: Meleusippus, I have resolved to place you three brothers in my palace and to crown you equally with eternal rewards. Your grandmother pours forth suppliant prayers every day and night for your salvation, so that walking on the straight path, freed from dark obscurity, you may be able to behold the true light and may come from the condemnation of death to perpetual life. These and very many other words of exhortation the King of whom I spoke narrated to me in the vision. O how wondrous, how harmonious, and indicating one and the same thing, and to be held in perpetual memory, were the visions which the three twin brothers, while still placed in the darkness of night, already illuminated by predestination through the grace of the Holy Spirit, were worthy to see! To these three boys, through the intercession of their grandmother, the Trinity was revealed beforehand through grace, before they received the full teaching of Christ. They saw the Lord God with eyes partially illuminated before they more fully knew the Savior through the confession of their mouths.

CHAPTER III.

Having overturned the idols, they publicly profess the faith.

[10] Reflecting, therefore, within themselves upon the concordance of the visions, the holy Twins, unceasingly instructed by the preaching of St. Benignus and the prayers of the Blessed Leonilla, were considering more attentively what they should undertake; desiring also that, with the darkness wiped away, they might visibly behold the pure light of brightness in the sight of light, Instructed, they are baptized by St. Benignus. and might know without any ambiguity the living and true God. Then they said to their grandmother: Show us what we should do, so that your preaching, with all errors driven away, may avail for our salvation. At these words, the Blessed Leonilla, exulting over the holy confession of her grandsons and giving thanks to God, said to them together with St. Benignus: Keep therefore all the divine precepts, and believe without doubt that Christ, the King of kings, is God, and separated from wicked idols, offer yourselves to your Creator God. St. Benignus then taught them all holy doctrine, and when he knew that, perfected in the faith of Christ, they had fully received the true and manifest confession of belief through the infusion of the Holy Spirit, he likewise consecrated them with the grace of baptism. Then St. Benignus sought the fortress of Dijon, where, gathering many fruits of his labor, not long after he merited the fitting crown of martyrdom for his many merits.

[11] They overturn the idols. The holy twin brothers, confirmed in all belief in Christ, commanded their servants to break the image of Nemesis and to raze to the foundations the twelve temples that were established in their house; and also to dash to pieces at once the statues of the idols themselves, reduced to fragments: and the servants did all that had been commanded by their masters.

[12] Meanwhile, swift rumor, spreading through the entire boundaries of the city of Langres, announced that the three twin brothers, grandsons of the Blessed Leonilla, sprung from illustrious birth, had most openly turned to the worship of Christ out of zeal for devotion, and that, counting the images of the gods as nothing with confidence in Jesus Christ the Almighty, and despising them in every abomination, they had ordered them to be overturned from the foundations along with the idols themselves. Immense rumor grows among the people, The populace rushes against them. the Leading Men, Judges, and priests of the idols are stirred to anger, and inflamed with excessive fury they converge upon the boys of God from all sides; and having gathered together, the Leading Men said to them: What sudden recklessness has overtaken you? Who persuaded you to abandon the worship of our gods, which our ancestors and yours are known to have observed from ancient times, overturning the decrees of the Princes? Christ, whom you adore as God, the Jews nailed to the cross in condemnation of death. Then the Saints, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: O demented ones plunged in deep darkness, overshadowed by perpetual shadows, They give an account of their faith, weighed down by an excessive burden of sins, condemned to the perpetual death of unending punishments, deceived by the error of the ancient enemy — why do you compel us to adore stones and other metals, figured in the likenesses of men by men, which appear to have no breath of life? Which are nothing, sense nothing, and are worshipped as nothing by the utterly foolish. The true and living God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is to be believed as one in the Trinity of the Godhead, and threefold in the unity of majesty. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself God from God, light from light, splendor proceeding from splendor, who always is and always was, and will Himself forever remain without end. He Himself made all things that are in this world.

[13] Then the Leading Men of the people and the Judges and priests who had come to the spectacle were stirred to excessive anger against the holy servants of God. fearless before torments. Quadratus, rising up and filled with anger, struck Speusippus and Eleusippus with his fist in the face, because only those two had spoken. Melasippus, grieving, cried out saying: Why did you not make me a participant in this gift of blows together with my brothers? In them you showed the desirable beginning of suffering, but me you have sequestered from the holy fellowship, as though honoring me on account of your unbelieving acts. We are of one mind in the confession of Christ; equally through your perfidy we congratulate one another on the recompense from Christ. Quadratus said: Today we intend to punish you with various tortures for your contempt of our gods. Eleusippus said: The greater the torments you prepare for us, the more you strengthen us with the grace of God. Palmatius said: Unless we tear out their tongues by the root, they will not cease to speak injury against us and our gods. Speusippus said: If your cruelty cuts out our fleshly tongues, we will narrate the mighty works of God in our inner being, and your malice will never separate us from the holy belief in Christ. Again Palmatius and Hermogenes say: Wretched men, you hasten with one mind to the destruction of your death. Speusippus said: To die for the name of Christ is glorious; from there we shall arrive more swiftly at eternal life, where there is no sorrow, but joys that are never ended.

CHAPTER IV.

Variously tortured, they are crowned.

[14] Palmatius and Quadratus and Hermogenes, seeing them persevere steadfastly in the confession of Christ, Leonilla is sent to call them away from the faith, were considering more attentively what they should do, or with what most grievous punishments they should be afflicted, or by what manner of death they should be condemned most cruelly, on account of the multitude of those who had gathered. While they were deliberating on this more carefully, they ordered the Blessed Leonilla to be summoned to them privately; hoping that perhaps by her blandishments and parental persuasions she might be able to call them back to the worship of the gods, so that they would deny the majesty and Deity of Christ in all things. And when the Blessed Leonilla had come to them, the Judges said to her: Go to your grandsons, and if you desire to save them and to free them from the torments of punishment and the destruction of death, persuade them to restore the temples which they have destroyed; and worshipping our gods, let them offer the customary sacrifices. Saying these and many other things, the Blessed Leonilla said to them: I will go, and I will persuade them to do all that is conducive to their welfare.

[15] Coming therefore, the Blessed Leonilla, to her grandsons, when she had learned that they persevered in their holy confession, she confirms them in it. was filled with great exultation, bestowing sweet kisses on all, weeping for joy and pouring forth many prayers to Almighty God, and giving thanks to Christ, she said to her grandsons: None of your lineage is nobler, none richer, none more pleasing than you are found to be in Christ. By the glorious confession of Christ you have perpetually illuminated your entire progeny. Set in tender age, you have surpassed all the elders of your lineage in wisdom. You have acquired an immense treasure, more precious than all wealth, through the soldiery of Christ. Be therefore manfully persevering in the holy religion of Christ. Let no adversity break you, let no threats, let no torments of punishment terrify your souls, bravely armed in the faith of Christ. The kingdoms of this world, which are seen and end with temporal life, are nothing: for to desire the invisible and eternal kingdom of God is the perpetual, perfect, and above all things timely fullness of wisdom. Through these temporal labors and quickly passing punishments you will attain eternal joys. Seeing therefore that they remained firm in their resolve, full of the grace of Christ, and bravely kept the faith they had promised, commending her grandsons to God with wholehearted devotion, she departed from them.

[16] When they were asked by the Judges whether they wished to consent to them and to confess the images of the gods with a public declaration; since they persisted in the love of Christ with a stubborn resolve and had in no way wished to give assent to those who asked, they were suspended on a single tree with their hands bound upward and their feet downward: and they were stretched by such invention of torments that they seemed almost to be separated from the very structure of their limbs. Strengthened by Christ, however, so that the endurance of virtue, divinely ministered inwardly, caused them to remain manfully in the confession and belief of Christ: Suspended and tortured, they exult. and in those very torments, Meleusippus, suspended with his brothers, taunted the Judges, saying: Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to be worshipped in the Trinity, nailed to the cross, hung on the holy wood for our redemption, whence we merited to obtain the sign of the cross. We too, His three servants, hanging on this single tree for His name, let us become glorious Martyrs. O blessed fruit of that tree, which bore three Martyrs, consecrated in the name of the Trinity.

[17] The Judges, seeing them strengthened and not grieving in their torments, said to them: You will not die on that tree, as you say you wish, They are cast into the fire: but you will perish by avenging fire. Meleusippus, again answering, said to them: It will be a greater increase of blessedness for us if, tested by fire, we pass through to God, and through this fire come from darkness to perpetual light. Then the Judges, on account of the fear of the crowds who were present, prepared wood and other things that customarily furnish fuel for fires; and a great fire was kindled. The holy Twins were hurled into the fire with their hands and feet bound. Christ the Savior was present in the midst, and with their bonds broken the holy Martyrs gloried in the fire, they remain unharmed: and no conflagration touched any of them. O blessed fire, which purged only the original sin and inflicted no detriment of diminishing burning on the members of the Saints! The fire rather aided the Saints, through which the enemy wished to harm them but could not. The fire was kindled more fiercely by the unbelievers, so that the bodies of the Saints might be consumed without delay: but divine mercy, turning things for the better, thereby prepared for the Saints an inextinguishable light. The burning flames were raised up higher; but, serving the workmanship of Christ, they displayed the outstanding glory of the Saints — those flames which had been prepared by the persecutors for destruction. The fire could not exert its own power to consume the members of the Saints, because the power of God tempered the heat of the flame for His Saints out of the zeal of mercy.

[18] The impious and iniquitous persecutors saw the holy Twins exulting amid the immense flames and remaining unharmed, whom they had expected to see consumed at once by so great a conflagration. Permission to walk about in the fire was granted to the Saints by Christ, so that a greater grief from confusion would increase in the unbelievers who beheld the divine mysteries. The wood and all the fuel for the fires were therefore exhausted. The holy Twins, standing in the midst as the flames died down, mocked the malice of the persecutors, saying: they taunt the Judges: The power to depart from here to Christ has been granted to us, if we wish; and if we still desire, permission has been given to taunt your madness while we live in this world. But it is better for us to hasten to His banquet, where the bounty of the Giver does not fail. When the unbelievers had cautiously approached the holy Twin servants of God after the fire had been extinguished, they were unable to see any scars from the burning on the members of the Saints. But lest there be a greater delay of martyrdom for those who desired it, they see Angels: and so that they might receive from Christ the Rewarder the unfading crowns long since prepared, seeing the choirs of Angels ready to receive them and standing before their eyes; then immediately bending their knees to the ground, prostrated in prayer, they die: invited by the blessed summons of Christ, breathing forth their holy spirits at the same time, they are known to have departed together to heaven.

[19] Their bodies were then carried and buried by the devout at the second milestone from the city of Langres, in the village called Urbatus, where two great roads join, they are buried: and others from a different direction are joined before them: so that there both the ready devotion of will, and the convenient meeting place for travelers, might always furnish a frequent concourse of the people, and a gathering for prayer at their shrine from all sides. And there also whatever is devoutly prayed for is daily granted by God through the intercession of the holy brothers: they shine with miracles. remedies of healing are diligently ministered through them to the sick: the consolation of comfort is granted without delay to the mourning, and distinguished worship around their basilica is always increased, and the generosity of resources is daily augmented for the better by the devout.

CHAPTER V.

The grandmother and other companions of martyrdom.

[20] This also is fittingly to be added, which pertains to increasing the praise of the holy Twins and to the worship of religion; for through their holy acquisition, the number of Martyrs was increased by the inspiration of God. A certain woman named Jonilla, seeing so precious a consummation of martyrdom of the holy Twins, Jonilla and Leonilla are crowned with martyrdom: spurning the partnership of marriage and leaving the sweet embrace of her small and only son, among the unbelieving crowds still agitated in the heat of persecution, hastening with swift course, cried out saying: I too am a handmaid of Christ; I proclaim without any ambiguity Christ as the living and true God: I utterly despise your ignominious and vain idols and refuse to adore them. At these words she was immediately seized, and on account of the fear of the surrounding people was suspended by her hair and afflicted with many torments; and when, compelled to deny Christ, she had in no way wished to do so, together with the Blessed Leonilla, grandmother of the Saints, she was led to the place of martyrdom, to the aforesaid village of Urbatus, and together they were slain by the sword of the persecutors.

[21] Neon also, the recorder and scribe of this event, handing the book to Turbon, likewise Neon and Turbon. entered the midst of the crowds of persecutors, desiring to be joined to the most blessed soldiery of the holy Twins, and confessed the name of Christ. He was immediately afflicted with various torments by the persecutors, and stripped of temporal life, he merited forthwith to be honored with martyrdom. Turbon also, not long after, perfectly instructed in the teaching of the most blessed Twins, was captured by the persecutors and enriched with the reward of martyrdom.

[22] These things were done under the Prince Aurelian, under the Governors Palmatius, Quadratus, and Hermogenes, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of February. The Discovery of the holy bodies of the Twins, and the Dedication of the Basilica of the holy Twins, is to be celebrated on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of October, in the reign of Christ our God, for ever and ever. Amen.