ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF SIRMIUM, INNOCENTIUS, SEBASTIA, OTHERWISE SABBATIA, AND THIRTY OTHERS.
From the Hieronymian Martyrologies.
CommentaryInnocentius, Martyr at Sirmium (S.)
Sabbatia, Martyr at Sirmium (S.)
Thirty other Martyrs at Sirmium
J. B. S.
We have long since observed that the name of Sebastia was wrongly rendered by Usuard in place of Sabbatia, as he had read it expressed in Ado, and as it stands here in the Little Roman and in the Hieronymian codices, among which the most ancient Epternach one is confused on this day, reading them as it were in one announcement: "In Africa, the feast of Jucundianus, Serenus, Sabbatia, and the Innocents"—where for "Serenus" must be restored "Sirmium," and for "Innocents," "of Innocentius," and there must be added "and companions," concerning whom the Lucca codices read a little better indeed, or rather less badly: "In Syria, the feast of Sabbatia, of Innocentius, with twenty-five others"; nor quite completely in either Corbie codex: "In Sirmium, the feast of Sabbatia, of Innocentia, with ninety others (XCX)," where for the C, just as in the Lucca codices, and for the V, must be restored X, so that there be thirty companions, whom the Little Roman, Ado, and the whole Usuardine offspring constantly add to the others—unless something has been loosened by the fault of the transcribers, as we have already said of Sabbatia turned into Sebastia, whom Galesinius called Sebastiana, while Bellinus for "Sirmium" substituted "Smyrna," and others perhaps introduced other things, which there is no leisure to review at greater length: we, together with the Roman, have rendered the Usuardine phrase. No clarity can accrue from the more abbreviated Hieronymian codices, nor from the supplements of Bede, where there is wrongly "Innocens" for "of Innocentius," nor from any other source; nor is any greater knowledge to be hoped for concerning this cohort of Martyrs, unless one should wish to learn from the Spanish Martyrology of Tamayus that the sacred pledges of this Saint were sent back from Rome into Spain. Tamayus would have settled the matter, if he had taught the time and manner in which the pledges of St. Innocentius were brought from Sirmium to Rome. No more do I understand what Masinius means in his "Bologna surveyed," when he says that the body of St. Innocentius is consecrated there among the Franciscan Fathers, and that among the Nuns of Jesus and Mary are the relics of the same Saint.