ON THE HOLY ALEXANDRIAN MARTYRS
TRYPHON, MENELAUS, CYRION, EULOGIUS, PORPHOREUS, APRICUS, CHUSTUS,
JULIAN, ERADIUS, LIKEWISE TRYPHON, ORESTES. THERE MAY BE ADDED CYRIL, EMERION,
ANOTHER CYRION, AND JULIUS.
Notice from the Hieronymian Martyrology.
Tryphon, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Menelaus, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Cyrion, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Eulogius, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Porphoreus, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Apricus, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Chustus, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Julian, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Eradius, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Tryphon, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Orestes, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Cyril, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Emerion, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Cyrion, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
Julius, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
J. B. S.
Three companies of Martyrs the Hieronymian apographs in Florentinius exhibit today—one Alexandrian, another of Tarsus, the third of Constantinople—here to be reviewed in order. The first, rightly distinguished in the most ancient Epternach codex, The number of these Martyrs and thence received by Bollandus in his preface, I have discussed in my observations on Usuard, who more probably joined to Tryphon only ten anonymous companions, although in some codices, to be seen in our edition, twelve are marked, as is there sufficiently explained. And so in the title we have expressed by name for this class only eleven Martyrs, from the praised Epternach codex; adding four others, as though by way of appendix—Cyril and Emerion from the Lucca and two Corbie codices; another Cyrion from the Corbie of Achery; Julius from the Corbie of Florentinius: although I do not deny that it can easily be conceived that diverse formations of names, or rather duplications by the scribes, increased the number; so that Cyril might be confounded with Cyrion, the other Cyrion with the other Tryphon, Julius with Julian, only Emerion surviving to make up the twelve. Nevertheless, in matters so obscure, we have thought nothing should be passed over.
[2] Here Florentinius agrees with us in the former number established, it is more probably established from the ancient codices, and agrees also with Bollandus, who, he confesses, aptly restored the text of the Epternach apograph, somewhat disturbed at the beginning. And
thus we judge the number of that whole class to have been more probably arranged according to the sense of the Hieronymian Martyrology, unless a twelfth companion is to be preserved, which is plainly marked in the briefer Hieronymian of the Queen of Sweden, or the Senones codex, published by us among other things in volume VII of June: At Alexandria, the Holy Martyrs Triphon, Menelaus, and ten others. For the rest, from those other likewise abridged codices, nothing can be drawn to illustrate the matter, since the Augsburg and Labbean codices confound the classes and the plucked-out names of the Martyrs, while the Rheinau and Reichenau remember only four—Triphon, Menelaus, Cyril, Apricus. The Barberini also has four, but for Apricus substitutes Julian; more shamefully the manuscript of St. Maximin of Trier wrote Jubanus. In the others there is nothing worthy of note for this class.
[3] against the more recent, who confounded the classes. Baronius followed the more recent Usuardine codices, when in the Roman Martyrology he ascribed to Triphon twelve companions along with Maurolyco and others, whom it would be vain to review here one by one. Peter de Natalibus, book 11, number 188, wonderfully amplifies the matter, when he thus reads: Triphon and two hundred other Martyrs suffered at Alexandria on the fifth before the Nones of July. Different is the phrasing of Galesinius, but no better: At Alexandria in Egypt, the blessed martyrs Tryphon, Severinus, Julian, Euphemia the virgin, and twelve others: who in that very persecution (of Aurelian), not being torn from union with Christ by the force of torments nor by the barbarous cruelty of the torturers, are crowned as witnesses of true and divine piety. A confusion of things and of names. Severinus, or rather Severus, belongs to the next class; Euphemia to the third. An elogium according to fancy, which could be adapted to all Martyrs; but the persecution of Aurelian was added at the mere discretion of Galesinius. For Ferrari it was enough to insert the names of those Saints into his Catalogue, because he had not found them so expressed in the Roman Martyrology. Had he gone to the source, he would not have vainly multiplied the streamlets from the opinions of the more recent Martyrologists.