ON S. GERMANICUS, MARTYR, AT SMYRNA IN ASIA.
Year of Christ CLXVIII.
CommentaryGermanicus, Martyr at Smyrna in Asia (S.)
From various sources.
[1] The name of S. Germanicus the Martyr is inscribed in the Roman calendar on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February, with this eulogy: At Smyrna, the birthday of S. Germanicus the Martyr, who, while he flourished in the bloom of his early youth, The birthday of S. Germanicus, under M. Antoninus and L. Aurelius, by the grace of divine power, banishing the fear of bodily frailty, willingly provoked the beast prepared for him, having been condemned by the Judge: crushed by its teeth, he merited to be incorporated into the true Bread, the Lord Jesus Christ, dying for His sake. Nearly the same things are said of him by Usuardus, Ado, Bellinus, Maurolycus, Galesinius, and the common Bede, who also on 26 January, treating of S. Polycarp, says: Then also Germanicus, a distinguished athlete of Christ, was translated by the glorious contest of martyrdom. For when he had been condemned by the Judge to the beasts, he willingly provoked the beast prepared for him, despising temporal death and desiring to obtain by a swift end the crown of eternal life. Nearly the same is said in the same place by Notkerus, by whom he is also commemorated on this day, as also in the old Roman Martyrology and other published and manuscript martyrologies. But Galesinius and Canisius again celebrate his memory on 18 February.
[2] His deeds, by whom recorded. His glorious combat is narrated in the Acts of S. Polycarp on 26 January, by Eusebius, book 4, chapter 14; by Nicephorus, book 3, chapter 34; by Petrus de Natalibus, book 2, chapter 103; by our Petrus Halloix, volume 1 of the lives of holy writers, life of S. Polycarp, chapter 12; by Ioannes Basilius Sanctorius, and others. Eusebius, drawing from the letter of the Church of Smyrna to the Churches of Pontus, writes thus:
[3] Before they proceed to describe the martyrdom of Polycarp, they set forth what pertains to the other Martyrs, and recount the strength of soul they displayed in enduring their torments: those standing around, they write, were struck with amazement, transfixed with admiration at such fortitude, as they beheld them now indeed so lacerated by scourges down to the inmost veins and arteries, that the internal organs and limbs hidden in the deepest recesses of the body were exposed to view; now laid upon sea-shells and sharp spikes and skewers; and finally, after being tortured by every kind of torment and punishment, cast to the wild beasts, to be torn apart by them. Above all, they say, the most noble Germanicus excelled, his fortitude under torments, who by divine grace raised and strengthened the weakness implanted by nature, by which we shrink from bodily death: and when the Proconsul sought to persuade him, holding his youth before him and earnestly entreating him to take pity on himself since he was young and vigorous, the Martyr utterly scorned these appeals: and eagerly drew the beast upon himself, all but using force to provoke it, so that he might be more swiftly freed from this unjust and impious world.
[4] The time of his death. So Eusebius. These events took place, as we shall say from his Chronicle on 26 January, in the seventh year of M. Aurelius and L. Verus, which was the year of Christ 168. It is remarkable that the name of Germanicus does not appear in the Greek calendars; which nevertheless venerate S. Polycarp on 23 February.