ON THE HOLY ROMAN MARTYRS PAPIAS AND MAURUS.
Under Diocletian.
CommentaryPapias, Martyr at Rome (S.) Maurus, Martyr at Rome (S.)
From various sources.
Section I. The feast of SS. Papias and Maurus, their Acts.
[1] At Rome, on the Nomentan Way, 29 January, the birthday of SS. Papias and Maurus, soldiers, whose mouths Laudicius, Prefect of the City, ordered to be crushed with stones at their first confession of Christ, Feast of SS. Papias and Maurus, and then to be thrust back into prison, and afterward beaten with clubs, and finally with leaden scourges until they expired. So Usuard and Bellinus, in agreement with the Roman Martyrology, Maurolycus, and most manuscripts. Ado, Rabanus, Notker, the published text of Bede, Canisius, and others have embraced their entire contest in a somewhat more prolix eulogy.
[2] This is narrated more fully on 16 January in the Acts of S. Marcellus, chapter 2, number 7, in these words: Conversion, Then two soldiers, Papias and Maurus, seeing (the bronze tripod brought that SS. Saturninus and Sisinnius might offer incense to the majesties, which, as was previously stated, while they were praying was immediately dissolved like mud; although Ado only writes that they saw the constancy of the Martyrs) -- having therefore observed this miracle, began to cry out and say: Truly the Lord Jesus Christ is God, whom Sisinnius and Saturninus worship.
[3] Laudicius the Prefect, therefore angered, ordered them to be raised on the rack. And while they were being tortured, they were beaten with sinews, clubs, and scorpions. But they cried out, saying: Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, Torments, because we have deserved to become companions of your servants. Then Papias and Maurus cried out, saying: Why does the devil so constrain you to commit these things against the servants of God? The angered Laudicius ordered their mouths to be crushed with stones, and had them thrust back into prison; and he ordered flames to be placed at the sides of Saturninus and Sisinnius. But they, hanging on the rack, gave thanks to God with a cheerful countenance. On that same day he sentenced them to undergo the capital penalty. And taken down from the rack, they were led out on the Nomentan Way, at the second milestone, and there they were beheaded. Their bodies were collected by Thrason with the Priest John, and buried on his estate on the Salarian Way, on the fourth day before the Kalends of December.
[4] After twelve days, Laudicius the Prefect ordered the soldiers Papias and Maurus, Baptism, who had been baptized by Blessed Marcellus the Bishop, to be brought before him at the Circus Flaminius. When he had seen them, he said to them: Now I know that you too are Christians. Papias said: Truly Christians. Laudicius said to them: Put aside and cast off your vain falsehood, and worship the gods whom the Princes worship. Maurus answered and said: Let those worship them who have despaired of their souls, that they may perish forever. Laudicius the Prefect said: Now you will despair of your souls if you do not sacrifice to the immortal gods. Hear and do what I say, and live. Papias answered: Do you sacrifice, and you will live in eternal torments. Then he ordered them to be thrown to the ground Death, and beaten with clubs. And while 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 leaden scourges. And after they had been beaten for a long time they breathed forth their spirits. Their bodies were collected at night by the Priest John, and buried on the Nomentan Way, on the fourth day before the Kalends of February, at the Nymphs of Blessed Peter, where he used to baptize.
[5] Thus in the Acts of S. Marcellus. For we do not agree with Baronius writing thus in his Notes: Concerning these on this day, Bede, Usuard, and at greater length Ado, from the Acts of S. Marcellus, or rather of Pope Marcellinus, in which their contests are interwoven. There are indeed very many things contained in those Acts that occurred while S. Marcellinus was still alive, since he was crowned with martyrdom scarcely six months before Diocletian laid down the empire, By whom they were baptized, but the later events nevertheless pertain to Marcellus alone, who could have both baptized these men and performed the other things attributed to him there before he entered upon the pontificate. Abbot Ursio, chapter 2, number 11, erroneously writes that after Papias and Maurus had been baptized by S. Marcellus, they were then seized after baptism. For it was in the very first confession, before baptism, that their mouths were crushed with stones. Then they were thrust back into prison, baptized, and after twelve days presented to the Prefect at the Circus Flaminius, beaten with clubs, and finally killed with leaden scourges. Galesin writes that they were beaten not with clubs but with rods and leaden scourges. But Baronius learnedly comments here on the fustuarium, a military punishment, although often also inflicted on Christians who were not serving in the military.
Section II. Their relics translated to the City and to Germany.
[6] The bodies of the holy soldiers of Christ were buried in the cemetery at the Nymphs, seven miles from the City, on the Nomentan Way, Their relics to the titulus of Equitius, which met the Salarian Way at Eretum, a town of the Sabines; this cemetery is mentioned elsewhere as well. Then their bodies, as Baronius writes here in his Notes, were first translated by Sergius Junior, Roman Pontiff, to the titulus of Equitius (as an ancient inscription sculpted in marble and placed in the same location teaches), thence by Gregory IX to the deaconry of S. Hadrian, and finally through the efforts of the Most Illustrious Cardinal Augustinus Cusanus, with Sixtus V granting permission, were translated to our church of S. Mary and S. Gregory in Vallicella, on the third day before the Ides of February 1590.
[7] The titulus of Equitius is so called from Equitius the Priest, who either presided over that region of the City, or perhaps claimed some right of patrimony in the Baths of Trajan or the church of SS. Silvester and Martin, or in the neighboring area, or had bestowed his house near the Baths for the construction of that church. That church is called SS. Martin and Silvester in the Hills: and Octavius Pancirolus writes, region 2, church 41, that it was founded by Silvester himself and consecrated with the titulus of Equitius. If this is true, it must then have been destroyed or weakened by time; for in the Life of S. Symmachus, who reigned from 22 November 498 to 19 July 514, the following is found in Anastasius: Within the city of Rome he built from the foundations the basilica of SS. Silvester and Martin near the Baths of Trajan. Built by Symmachus, Our Alexander Donatus agrees, book 4, On the City of Rome, chapter 3: Symmachus built the basilicas of S. Silvester and Martin at the Baths of Trajan on the Esquiline, S. Agatha and Pancratius on the Aurelian Way, and restored those of S. Agnes and Felicitas.
[8] Restored by Sergius II, The same Donatus, book 4, chapter 5: Sergius restored the orphanage and the church of SS. Silvester and Martin in the Hills: he established there a new monastery for monks who chanted the psalms. Sergius II reigned from 10 February 844 to 12 April 847, in whose Life Anastasius the Librarian writes thus: Therefore the most consummately pious, God-protected and most blessed Pope, solicitous with pious devotion for the desirable love of SS. Silvester and Martin, rebuilt from the foundations to a better and more beautiful state, with the clemency of God assenting, the church which had been consecrated in their holy name, which he had vigorously governed from the beginning of his priesthood until he was led to the summit of the pontificate, and which through the passage of time had withered with age, broken with ruins, and had long remained in a dilapidated state. He also painted the apse with golden mosaic colors suffused with great love.
[9] Translated: He then adds concerning the relics of the Saints translated by the same most holy Pontiff, both of others and of Cyriacus and Maurus, Largus and Smaragdus, etc. Certain relics of SS. Papias and Maurus had been brought to Germany before the pontificate of Sergius, namely in the year 835, by Deusdedit, a Roman Deacon, and Theodore his brother, to Rabanus, then Abbot of Fulda. Some to Germany, This is attested by Rudolph the Priest, who was present, in his Life of Rabanus, which we shall give on 4 February. He, listing other relics of Saints, adds this: Of the bones of SS. Pamphilus, Priest and Martyr, Papias, Maurus, and Victor, etc. And shortly after, when he has narrated with what honor the same Abbot placed the bones of SS. Fabian, Alexander, Felicissimus, and Agapitus, on the fourth day before the Kalends of August, with the authority of Archbishop Otgar of the Church of Mainz, through his Chorepiscop Reginbald, and placed with honor in the monastery of Fulda, in the church of the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, he adds the following: And the bones of the remaining Saints who are named above, he placed in an ark which, fashioned of wood and gilded in the likeness of the Ark of the Covenant of God, with Cherubim and its poles, he had placed in the basilica of Blessed Boniface the Martyr in the eastern apse, until he should prepare a fitting place for their veneration. Which he afterward also devoutly fulfilled with the help of God, as quickly as he could. These things were done in the year of the Lord's incarnation 835, Indiction 13.
Section III. Translated to the church of the Oratory.
[10] Moreover, Baronius writes, volume 2 of the Annals, at the year 270, number 10, that the bodies of SS. Papias and Maurus, together with the relics of other Saints, of which we treated on 19 January at the Life of SS. Marius and Martha, section 1, numbers 6 and following, were translated to the church of S. Hadrian around the time of Gregory IX, about the year of Christ 1228, in these words: Afterward translated to the church of S. Hadrian: And the same thing plainly happened concerning the venerable bodies of SS. Papias and Maurus, Roman soldiers, which we said in those same Notes were placed in the Titulus of Equitius, because what was afterward done was entirely unknown to us: but in truth they were found there (as was said), and by the same Pope Gregory they were placed apart from the others in a stone casket under the same Confessio, having been translated from the same Titulus of Equitius, where under the younger Pope Sergius they had been placed together with other holy Martyrs.
[11] Nevertheless, that some part of the said Martyrs was left there afterward, a part being left there, can be sufficiently understood from the fact that the same bodies, just found, are not entirely complete; although the greater part of them can be said to be present, with their heads also being there, as the matter itself, patent to all, has shown by clear evidence. But besides other monuments of antiquity, in the said reliquary of the Martyrs a small stone tablet, in the shape of a brick, was found with this inscription: IN THIS PLACE REST THE BODIES OF THE HOLY MARTYRS PAPIAS AND MAURUS. This was placed in the same location and is preserved together with the relics.
[12] It pleased our Most Holy Lord Sixtus V, Supreme Pontiff, at the initiative, with the singular zeal of love with which he always pursued our affairs, of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Augustinus Cusanus, To the church of the Fathers of the Oratory, Cardinal Deacon of that same Church, ever well-deserving of our Congregation, that the sacred bodies of the same holy Martyrs Papias and Maurus should be transferred from the Deaconry of S. Hadrian to our church, called S. Mary and S. Gregory in Vallicella, situated in the Parione district. This was arranged by the devout service and munificence of the same Most Illustrious and Most Reverend one, who liberally provided all things needful for so great an occasion.
[13] It came about almost by divine miracle that, when the church which had been begun in honor of the Mother of God and S. Gregory the Pope had been built over many years at great expense, Newly built, and was now being brought to completion, it should be adorned among other distinguished features, in the manner of the ancients, also with the tomb of Martyrs: and that these same Martyrs should opportunely appear anew in these very days, plainly by the counsel of God; so that, placed in a larger church, the City might honor them (as is fitting) with greater honor; With Baronius among those carrying them, and they themselves might bestow more abundant benefits upon suppliants. We saw them, and likewise touched them, and although unworthy, kissed them again and again, and joyfully put our shoulders under their sacred bier, together with our brother colleagues, in their Translation, on the third day before the Ides of February, in the year of the Lord 1590. It was very sweet and pleasant, after reviewing so many contests of Martyrs, to be visited on this very last day by such distinguished Roman Martyrs. We received such great guests cheerfully, who will remain with us forever, and we shall venerate them as our patrons with a more ample worship, and with ever greater daily services, studies, and offices, with the help of divine grace, we shall zealously continue to frequent them.
[14] Those who received the bodies of the holy Martyrs, brought with a solemn procession, with the most devout obsequiousness, In the presence of various Cardinals, going forth to meet them at the very lowest steps of the church, were the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Alfonso Gesualdo of Naples, Cardinal Bishop of Porto. Gabriele Paleotto of Bologna, Cardinal Bishop of Albano. Nicolo Sfondrato of Milan, Cardinal Priest of the title of S. Cecilia, of Cremona. Domenico of Genoa, Cardinal Priest of the title of S. Lawrence in Pane e Perna, Pinelli. Ippolito, Cardinal Priest of the title of S. Pancratius, Aldobrandini, the Major Penitentiary. Girolamo of Turin, Cardinal Priest of the title of S. Peter ad Vincula, della Rovere. Scipione of Mantua, Cardinal Priest of the title of S. Mary of the People, Gonzaga. Mariano Pierbenedetti, Cardinal Priest of the title of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, of Camerino. Federico of Milan, Cardinal Deacon of the title of S. Agatha, Borromeo. Augustinus of Milan, Cardinal Deacon of S. Hadrian, Cusanus, With S. Philip Neri receiving them, who by order of His Holiness delivered the bodies of the Saints with formal words to the Reverend Lord Philip Neri of Florence, Provost of the Congregation of the Oratory. Guido of Bologna, Cardinal Deacon of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Pepoli.
Section IV. Some relics translated to Flanders.
[15] Courtrai (which S. Audoenus in the Life of S. Eligius, which we shall give on 1 December, calls the municipality of Corturiacum) is a very ancient town of Flanders in Belgica Secunda, Some to the Jesuit college at Courtrai, on the Lys, or Laetia, river, in the diocese of Tournai. Here a college of the Society of Jesus was erected by the liberality of the Senate and people, with an elegant basilica, which is itself ennobled by the relics of other Saints as well as of SS. Papias and Maurus. These relics Cardinal Cusanus gave to Jean Vendeville, Bishop of Tournai, in the very same year given by Jean Vendeville the Bishop, in which their bodies had been translated: and he, dying in the fifth year of his episcopate, on 15 October of the year of Christ 1592, bequeathed them to the college of Courtrai. We shall append the testimonials both of the Cardinal himself and of Nicolas Zoesius, who was secretary to Vendeville, then his Official and Canon of Tournai, afterward royal Senator in the Council of Mechelen, and finally the fourth Bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch: although there also exists in the archive of the same college a diploma of Michael d'Esne, Bishop of Tournai, given on 2 July 1598, in which he approved the same relics in the first year of his episcopate. The testimonial of the Most Illustrious Cardinal Cusanus reads thus:
[16] To whom Cardinal Cusanus had given them. Augustinus, by divine mercy Cardinal Deacon of S. Hadrian of the Holy Roman Church, called Cusanus, makes known and attests to all and each who shall inspect these presents, that when the Most Reverend Lord Jean, Bishop of Tournai, inflamed with fervor of devotion, requested of us with great zeal that we should be willing to impart to him something from the relics of the blessed Martyrs, whose sacred bodies were recently uncovered in our church; we, desiring to satisfy his pious wish, having seen the faculty granted to him by our Most Holy Lord Sixtus V, Supreme Pontiff, concerning the extraction of relics from the holy City, on this day reverently received with our hands the relics described below, of which there is evidence from the ancient monuments of the same Church, and wrapped them in four separate coverings, as they were found in distinct places, although joined and mixed together in pairs or threes, in the manner which we individually express below: not doubting that they will be held in great honor and reverence by the same Most Reverend Lord, so that by the merits of the same Saints he may be filled by God with all good things, as we pray from our heart. These are the relics of the three Holy Boys. Of the Holy Martyrs Nereus, Achilleus, and Domitilla the Virgin:
Of the Holy Martyrs Marius and Martha, spouses:
Of SS. Papias and Maurus, Martyrs.
In witness whereof we have subscribed these presents, and ordered them to be subscribed by our Secretary and sealed with our great seal. Given at Rome on the 20th day of the month of March, 1540 [sic].
Augustinus, Cardinal Cusanus. Hieronymus Badesius, Secretary.
[17] The testimonial of Nicolas Zoesius reads thus: The Lord Executors of the testament of the Most Reverend Lord Jean Vendeville, Bishop of Tournai, gave the aforesaid holy relics as a gift to the College of the Society of Jesus in the town of Courtrai, in the year of the Lord 1593, on the 12th day of the month of January, which I, the undersigned, a Notary admitted by Apostolic authority, attest in the Privy Council of the Catholic King.
N. Zoes, Notary.