ON ST. ARPOS OF ALEXANDRIA
From the Hieronymian Martyrologies.
CommentaryArpos, Martyr, at Alexandria (S.)
J. B. S.
This Saint is drawn from the Hieronymian Martyrologies alone, who—whether he was a Martyr or a Confessor—the manner of announcing renders doubtful. But that he is better called Arpos than Apos, nearly all the exemplars prove, both the large and the smaller, against the Epternach alone, which writes thus: Whether he was a Martyr or a Confessor is uncertain. At Alexandria, the birthday of Apos. That word birthday, a particle here more rarely used, sounds I know not what, by which it may indicate a confessor. The Lucca, the Blume, and the codex of the Queen of Sweden, or the Sens of St. Columba, mark it in the same way, but better Arpos. If the Corbie text is true enough, all doubt is removed about the title due to St. Arpos; for thus it has: At Alexandria, the birthday of St. Arpos the confessor. Whence the writer of this codex drew that so distinctly is uncertain. The Auctaria of our Bede simply read: At Alexandria, of St. Arpos, and once Erpos. In the other Hieronymian Martyrologies St. Arpos is known by name alone, who, whether he was a Martyr or a confessor, this is certain, that of his deeds nothing has been handed down to memory, at least that has come to us.