ON S. ATHENOGENES, MARTYR.
CommentaryAthenogenes, Martyr (S.)
[1] At what time or in what place S. Athenogenes underwent martyrdom is not recorded. S. Basil mentions him in his book On the Holy Spirit to Amphilochius, chapter 29. "But if anyone," the slaying of S. Athenogenes, he says, "knows the hymn of Athenogenes, which he left to his disciples as a kind of farewell gift, as he was already hastening to the consummation that comes through fire, he knows also the judgment of the Martyrs concerning the Holy Spirit." the farewell hymn, So Basil. "Farewell gift," as our Fronton du Duc notes, is in Greek ἐξιτήριον, which Erasmus rendered aggressorium (he would more rightly have said egressorium), and Billius legatum. The Royal codex, which Fronton used, had ἀλεξητήριον, that is, an amulet.
[2] his feast day, The name of S. Athenogenes is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on 18 January in these words: "In the same place (in Pontus), of S. Athenogenes, an ancient Theologian, who, when about to consummate his martyrdom by fire, joyfully sang a hymn, which he also left in writing to his disciples." From what source Baronius learned that he died in Pontus we do not know: his homeland. Basil certainly does not record it, except that he cites the hymn as commonly known. The same Baronius mentions him in volume 2 of the Annals, at the year 196, number 7, where he admits that the period at which he died is held to be unknown.
[3] The same, in the Notes to the Martyrology, comments thus on Athenogenes: "I was at one time of the opinion that that most learned commentary written against the Gentiles, which is carried under the name of Athenagoras, belonged to this Athenogenes of whom we are treating here, Whether he is the same as Athenagoras. since no mention of Athenagoras is found among the Greeks or the Latins, whereas Athenogenes was very well known to the Greeks, celebrated both for his learning and for the crown of martyrdom. An error could easily have crept in, so that through the fault of copyists that commentary was inscribed with the name of Athenagoras instead of Athenogenes: which, however, I would not dare to affirm." Much less would we; especially since the philosopher Proclus, quoted by S. Epiphanius in Heresy 64, number 21, cites that commentary under the name of Athenagoras, as that passage is restored by Halloix in the Life of S. Justin, chapter 26, by Petau in his Animadversions on Epiphanius, and by Paulus Leopardus in book 19 of the Emendations, chapter 9.