ON THE HOLY MARTYRS ASTERIUS, FORTUNATUS, ZENO, ZOSIMUS, MENELAPUS, DAEDALUS, VALENS.
About the year 269.
CommentaryAsterius, Martyr (S.) Fortunatus, Martyr (S.) Zeno, Martyr (S.) Zosimus, Martyr (S.) Menelapus, Martyr (S.) Daedalus, Martyr (S.) Valens, Martyr (S.)
[1] The old manuscript Martyrology of S. Jerome has suggested to us the names of these Martyrs: "In Micea, of Asterius, Fortunatus, Zeno, Zosomus, Menelapus, Didalus, Valens." The Dungal manuscript: "Of Fortunatus, Asterius, Priscilla, Moyseus, the feast of these Saints, Ammonius, Micaeta, Seno, Zersenus, Menelamperus Martyr, Dedalus, Valens." What that "In Micea" means we do not grasp: whether at Nicaea, or in Mysia? But in the other manuscript there is the proper name Micaeta.
[2] We judge without question that these are the Martyrs who, under Claudius the younger, Gelasius being Governor, are recorded in the Acts of SS. Marius and Martha, which we shall give on 19 January, to have been slain on this day at Ostia, or near Ostia. their martyrdom, Asterius was a leading man, instructed in the doctrine of the faith by S. Valentine the Priest, who had restored sight to his adopted daughter by prayer, and baptized with all his household by Bishop Callistus. Sent away from there to Ostia, he was tortured on the rack by Gelasius the Judge, and the rest were beaten with clubs: then they were thrown to the beasts, and when these meekly licked their feet, they were cast headlong into the flames; and when these too had been extinguished from heaven, some were overwhelmed with stones outside the walls of the city of Ostia, others were struck with the sword. their burial, "Then the Christians buried their bodies with all diligence on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of February: in which place a church was built, and there the benefits of the Martyrs flourish."
[3] Octavius Pancirolus, in his index of the Roman relics: "S. Asterius with his daughter, whose name relics. and feast day we have not so far found: this only is certain, that they were crowned with martyrdom, and that their sacred relics rest in the church of the Monte di Pietà dedicated to S. Martin." The same, at region II of the City, church 31, attests that the relics of many Martyrs were dug up there in the year 1598, but among them he does not name those of S. Asterius. It is likely that his wife and daughter were also crowned with him, although it is said only that he was slain with all his household. And perhaps that Micaeta, or Micetia, Micea, Miceta, was one or the other of them. The same on 19 January? We are uncertain whether the same Martyrs, or some of them, are recorded again on 19 January. For the Martyrology of S. Jerome, after reciting the names of the Martyrs of Carthage, adds: "And elsewhere, of Zosimus, Menilapus, Tubarianus, Fortunatus." The Dungal manuscript gives them among others, without distinction: "Of Zosimus, Menelampus, Tabartinus, Fortunatus."
ON S. XENE, MARTYR.
CommentaryXene, Martyr (S.)
Unknown to the Latin Fasti, she is celebrated in the Menaea of the Greeks as slain by fire, with this distich added:
Christ came of old to cast fire upon the earth; Xene, running, lately bears the fire to the end. S. Xene slain by fire.
In the Greek there is a play on words in the word ξένη, which is indeed the proper name of the Martyr, but as a common noun signifies a guest, a stranger, a new woman; and on ξένως, that is, hospitably, as a stranger, newly: and there is an opposition between πάλαι and ξένως, that is, of old and recently or lately. Another Xene, who was also called Eusebia, we shall give on 24 January.