ON ST. THEODORE, BISHOP AND MARTYR, IN LIBYA.
ABOUT THE YEAR 310.
A Historical Collection.
Theodorus of Cyrene, Martyr in Libya (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
Cyrene, a city of Africa, situated in the province of Libya, deserved nothing so gloriously of St. Theodore by giving him birth, but that he repaid the benefit with interest and doubled, both by the illustrious splendor of his most glorious virtues, The Saint's cult, from the Menaea, with which he irradiated his homeland, and by the pastoral solicitude with which, set over it as bishop—if the Ambrosian Menaea, of which presently, are to be trusted—he fulfilled all the parts of a diligent prelate, and then most of all, because he honestly and splendidly adorned the place of his birth with his glorious blood poured out for the faith of Christ. For indeed the laureled triumph of our blessed Martyr furnished not a few hagiographers with matter for commending to letters, and transmitting to late posterity, his magnanimous daring, the unshaken constancy of his mind, and also his manly loftiness, exaggerated with virtues, in fighting the battles of the Lord. After the printed Greek Menaea, likewise the manuscript Chiffletian Menaea, the Menology of Sirletus, the Menaea written by command of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus for the use of the monastery of Grottaferrata in Latium, and finally after excerpts from the manuscript Menaea of the Ambrosian library, and from the Latin ones, after Baronius at the year of Christ 310, the Roman Martyrology treats of our Athlete, in the Roman Martyrology, and grants him his place every year with this announcement among the Saints accustomed to be celebrated by the Latin church: "At Cyrene in Libya, the feast of St. Theodore the bishop, who in the persecution of Diocletian, under the governor Dignianus, being beaten with leaded whips and having his tongue cut out, at last fell asleep in peace, a confessor."
[2] Our manuscript supplement to the printed Menaea sings in accord with the Martyr, in the Supplement to the printed Menaea, which consists partly of the parchment Synaxarion of Father Sirmond, partly of the paper manuscript of Chiffletius, with the two following little verses:
Ἐπὶ σκότους θανόντι τῷ Θεοδώρῳ / Τὸ τοῦ Προφήτου πρώϊμον φῶς ἐῤῥάγη.
"In darkness while thou undergoest thy fate, Theodore, then from the morning light there broke forth light." The poet alludes to that of Isaiah 58, v. 8: Τότε ῥαγήσεται πρώϊμον τὸ φῶς σου, "Then shall thy morning light break forth." From the monuments of the Greeks concerning Theodore cited above, I cull in the first place his announcement in the Menology of Sirletus, which runs in these words: "On the same day IV July, the contest of the sacrosanct Martyr Theodore, bishop of Cyrene, who was under the Emperor Diocletian, of the city of Cyrene, from which was Simon the Cyrenian. This man, accused before the governor Dignianus, when he would not deny Christ, being beaten with leaden rods, and afterward his tongue being cut out, and having endured many other torments for the confession of Christ, rested in peace."
[3] Let us hear what the Basilian Menology commemorates in his praise. The Basilian Menology: Μηνὶ τῷ αὐτῷ δ᾽, ἄθλησις τοῦ ἁγίου Ἱερομάρτυρος Θεοδώρου Κυρήνης. "In the same month, on the IV day, the passion of the sacrosanct Martyr Theodore, bishop of Cyrene." This succinct announcement being premised, he thus continues: "The sacrosanct Martyr Theodore lived while Diocletian reigned, sprung from the city of Cyrene. This man, after he had been well taught the art of painting letters skillfully and elegantly, and had collected several books, offered them to the Christians, that they might honor God. Being therefore accused by his own son, before the governor of the city, he was arrested together with many other Christians, with whom likewise was St. Lucia. And when he was questioned about the books written by him, and would not hand them over, he was severely beaten; and being compelled to approach the altar and burn incense, he himself, running, struck at it with his heels and overthrew it. Then, suspended, fixed to a beam, he had his tongue cut out. Taken down from the beam, he was shut up in prison; and after they had seen him healed, many men and women believed in the Lord, who also together with him consummated the last day of their life."
Thus I have turned into Latin the text of the said Menology, which you have at the end of the first volume of this month.
[4] For the rest, the manuscript Menaea of the Ambrosian Library also weave for our Martyr a somewhat longer and fuller elogium, and the Menaea recounting some added circumstances pertaining hereto, and indeed the very conversion of the governor Dignianus to Christ. I have collated these with the supplement to the printed Menaea which we have, compiled partly from the Synaxarion of Sirmond and the manuscript of Chiffletius, and it nearly agrees with the praised Ambrosian Menaea. Those things which are enclosed in brackets were not in these, but I have transcribed them hither from the said supplement, and inserted them into the Ambrosian text for the fuller information of the reader. And, since the said Menaea have nowhere, as I believe, come forth into public communicated through the press, I judge they should be set forth in their original tongue. Thus they have it: Ἄθλησις τοῦ ἁγίου Ἱερομάρτυρος Θεοδώρου ἐπισκόπου Κυρήνης τῆς κατὰ Λυβίην. Οὗτος ὁ Ἅγιος ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ Διοκλητιανοῦ βασιλέως [γέγονε δὲ καλλιγράφος, εἰς ἄκρον ἀσκήσας τὴν τέχνην, καὶ ἐναπέθετο τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ βίβλους πολλὰς, ἃς αὐτὸς ἰδίαις χερσὶν ἔγραψε. Διάτοι τοῦτο] διαβάλλεται τῷ Ἡγεμόνι [Διγνιανῷ, ὡς βίβλους τινὰς κατέχων, μεταπείθειν πολλοὺς δι᾽ αὐτῶν τῆς τῶν θεῶν λατρείας, πρὸς τὸν εἰς Χριστὸν πίστιν] ὑπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ Λέοντος ὡς Χριστιανῶν διδάσκαλος, καὶ ἄγεται πρὸς τὸν Ἡγεμόνα πολλῶν αὐτῷ συνεπομένων Χριστιανῶν [μεθ᾽ ὧν ἦν καὶ ἡ ἁγία Λουκία, καὶ Ἀρόα, οὕτω καλουμένη. Ὁ δὲ Ἅγιος αἰτηθεὶς τὰς βίβλους, καὶ μὴ παρασχὼν, μὴ δὲ πεισθεὶς ἀρνήσασθαι τὸν Χριστὸν] αὐτίκα ῥάβδοις καὶ μολυβδῖσιν τύπτεται, καὶ τὸν βωμὸν λακτίσας καὶ ἀναστρέψας, ἀναρτηθεὶς ξέεται καὶ ὄξει καὶ ἅλατι καὶ τριχίνοις ῥάκεσι τὰς πληγὰς ἀνατρίβεται, καὶ τὴν γλῶσσαν τέμνεται. Ἐν δὲ τῇ φυλακῇ ἀναχθεὶς, λαβὼν ὑπὸ τῶν ὁσίων γυναικῶν τὴν ἐκτμηθεῖσαν γλῶτταν, ἐν τῷ ἑαυτοῦ τέθηκε στήθει. Ἐντα περιστερὰ ἑωρᾶτο περιεπταμένη τῷ Ἁγίῳ καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ τῆς θυρίδος ἀναπτᾶσα.
[5] of the library Ταῦτα δὲ κατειδὼν καὶ ὁ εἰδωλολάτρης Λούκιος ἐπίστευσε τῷ Χριστῷ. Ὁ δὲ Ἅγιος ὑγιὴς γενόμενος, μικρὸν ὕστερον τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπέδωκεν, ἅμα τῷ τὴν περιστερὰν ἀσπασαμένην αὐτὸν τοῦ οἰκήματος ἐξελθεῖν. Μαθὼν ταῦτα ὁ Ἡγεμὼν καὶ ὅτι ὁ Λούκιος Χριστιανὸς γέγονε, προσέταξεν ἀναιρεθῆναι τὰς ἁγίας Λουκίαν καὶ Ἀρόαν καὶ Κυπρίλλαν, καὶ ὅσοι ἐδέξαντο τὴν παρὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Θεοδώρου σφραγίδα. Μετὰ ταῦτα βαπτισθεὶς ὁ Λούκιος πείθει καὶ τὸν Ἡγεμόνα Διγνιανὸν πιστεῦσαι τῷ Χριστῷ, οἳ καὶ ἐκπλεύσαντες ὁμοῦ ἀπὸ Κυρήνης * εἰς Κύπρον, εὗρον ἕτερον Ἡγεμόνα κολάζοντα τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ λαθὼν ὁ Λούκιος τὸν Διγνιανὸν, παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν ἑαυτὸν τοῖς βασανισταῖς καὶ ἀνατρέψας τὸν βωμὸν, ξίφει τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀποτέμνεται καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ Διγνιανοῦ συγκομίζεται καὶ ταφῇ παραδίδοται Τελεῖται δὲ ἡ αὐτῶν σύναξις ἐν τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ αὐτῶν μαρτυρίῳ ἐν τῷ Ῥηγίῳ.
[6] of the Ambrosian [library,] The passion of the sacrosanct Martyr Theodore, bishop of Cyrene, which is in Libya. This holy man, who lived in the times of the Emperor Diocletian, [was skilled in the art of painting letters cleverly, which he exercised most highly, and left to the Church many books which he himself had written with his own hands. Therefore] he is accused by his own son [Leo] before the governor [Dignianus, because, having certain books in his possession, he was through them converting many from the worship of the gods to the faith of Christ], namely that he taught the Christians, and he is led to the governor, many Christians following him, [with whom also were St. Lucia and Aroa, so called. But the Saint, when he was asked for the books, and gave them not, nor could be induced to deny Christ,] is straightway beaten with rods and leaded scourges; and after he had assailed the altar with his heels and overturned it, being lifted on high he is scraped, and his wounds are rubbed with vinegar and salt and cloths made of bristle, and he is deprived of his tongue by cutting. Brought to prison, after he had received from the holy women his cut-out tongue, he placed it in his own bosom. Then a dove was seen, which flew about the Saint, and flew back as if through a window. Beholding this, Lucius the idolater believed in Christ.
[7] where more circumstances are added. But the Saint, restored to his former health, a little after gave up his soul, at the same moment as the dove, having greeted him, invited him to go forth from the prison. The governor, when he had understood these things, and that Lucius had become a Christian, ordered the holy women Lucia and Aroa and Cyprilla to be slain, and as many as had received baptism from St. Theodore. Afterward Lucius, washed by baptism, persuades even the governor Dignianus to believe in Christ. Who, after they had together sailed from Cyrene to Cyprus, found another governor who was punishing those who invoked Christ. And Lucius, withdrawing himself from Dignianus, delivered himself to the tormentors, and when he had overturned the altar, he is diminished in his head by the sword, and is carried off by Dignianus, and committed to a tomb. [But their solemnity is celebrated in their most holy Martyrium, or place sacred to them, at Rhegium.] The most eminent Cardinal Baronius reckons the sacred triumphs of Theodore at the year of Christ 310, adorning them with a brief elogium: which we cited above from the Roman Martyrology.
[8] Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology prefers to say that our Athlete suffered under Maximinus, The time of the Martyrdom. surnamed Daza, rather than under Diocletian: but these things are so far from conflicting with each other, that they even cohere most excellently, if St. Theodore of Cyrene be said to have suffered under Diocletian; not as though at that time he was still administering the government of the empire, who had laid aside the purple in the year 304 or 305; but because the most grievous torch of persecution against the Christians, begun and kindled by Diocletian himself, was still raging, and went on to rage further even to the year 312, in which the tyrant Maxentius, not without the notable favor of the Cross appearing in the air, was utterly routed and destroyed by Constantine the Great. Yet its fervor and cruelty began to be much abated in the preceding year, as Baronius testifies in the Ecclesiastical Annals, namely 311. Therefore let Theodore be said to have suffered under Diocletian, because he suffered under his persecution; and nothing hinders recording him to have suffered under Maximinus, since he is reported to have suffered at that time in which the latter was resplendent with the dignity of Caesar. That these two cohere excellently in the reckoning of time, is manifest.
Annotation* alternatively Κρήτης "of Crete"