ON ST. LEO.
From the manuscript Greek Synaxaria of Sirmond and Chifflet.
CommentaryLeo the Anchorite (S.)
J. P.
Nothing concerning this Saint do the Greek Menaea, nothing the Basilian Menologium report. Wherefore I had to have recourse elsewhere, that I might find some memory of St. Leo the anchorite recorded in the sacred tables. So the silence of others is supplied by our apograph, transcribed in great part both from the parchment Synaxarium of Sirmond and from the paper manuscript of Chifflet, in which apograph I read these few words: "The holy Leo the hermit, having lived naked, is consummated in peace." St. Leo the Hermit, after he had lived naked, completed the course of his life in peace. In place of an elogium I transcribe here these two little verses from the Synaxarium of Chifflet: "Not persuaded by the flesh of Eve before you died, Leo, like the first Adam, being naked you were not ashamed." Never did the flesh of Eve conquer you, Leo, before death; Be not ashamed, naked, like innocent Adam.
ON THE 2000 MARTYRS.
From the Mazarine Menaea.
CommentaryAnonymous Martyrs (SS.)
J. P.
This numerous and likewise glorious phalanx of twice a thousand Martyrs would perhaps have been wrapped in perpetual shadows of oblivion and passed over by us in our Acts, had not the Mazarine apograph supplied some light, which agrees in almost all things with the Chifflet one. Thus they are there announced: "The holy two thousand Martyrs are consummated by the sword." The holy two thousand Martyrs are consummated by the sword. I add two little verses from the Mazarine codex already named: "The sword strikes two thousand of the venerable Athletes, from whom cowardice is far." The iron slays twice a thousand noble Champions: in these is no fear of men.
The allusion in the word "chiliandria," which designates a band of two thousand men, and in the word "deilandria," which you might not incongruously call the fear inflicted by men, cannot be imitated in Latin with equal brevity and energy.