ON ST. Ariston and Companions
Under Diocletian.
Notice from the Acts of St. Sebastian and the Martyrologies.
Ariston, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Crescentianus, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Eutychianus, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Urbanus, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Vitalis, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Justus, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Felicissimus, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Felix, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Marcia, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.) Symphorosa, Martyr in Campania Felix (St.)
By the author J. B. S.
The first to mention these Martyrs was the author of the Little Roman, expressing the names of only the first four, comprehending the rest under the terms "and others"; which perhaps Ado too would have done better, thus about to exclude none of those who in the Acts of St. Sebastian, in our edition chapter XI, are associated; unless he did so because he knew others marked elsewhere on different days, or that he might distinguish those remaining in the City from those who, at the exhortation of Pope Caius, had withdrawn thence. Thus therefore Ado has it: Likewise on the same day, of the holy Martyrs Ariston, Crescentianus, Eutychianus, Urbanus, Vitalis, Justus, Felicissimus, Felix, Marcia, and Symphorosa, who were all crowned with glorious martyrdom in Campania. These very words were transferred into Usuard, thence into today's Roman, these being added at the end: When the persecution of the emperor Diocletian raged. Baronius, in his notations, says that their passions are described in Surius; I think he meant to say that their names, baptism, and departure from the City are recorded in the Acts of St. Sebastian, for concerning their martyrdom nothing is read there; nor have I been able hitherto to find whence the most learned Cardinal dug out that they were crowned in the year 303, as he referred at that year, number 120. Here Equilinus cites Ado from the Martyrology of Jerome: but I have noted elsewhere that Equilinus knew no other Martyrology of St. Jerome than Usuard himself, supposing from the most received opinion that he is more ancient than Ado, concerning which matter see our preface to Usuard. From this class of Martyrs, Vitalis and Urbanus, transferred into the Hispanic Martyrology, are adorned by Tamayo with many things, which would that they could be proved from elsewhere than from the pseudo-chronicles. For the rest, that the Natale of these holy Martyrs is celebrated at Suessa (where their relics are asserted to be) the Neapolitan writers affirm in Ferrarius: but whatever Jacobilli heaps up in volume 3 from page 432, cannot be referred to this St. Vitalis, but to a Saint baptized from the Roman crypts.