ON ST. DOMITIUS THE MARTYR
IN SYRIA.
In the year 363.
An Inquiry concerning several synonymous Saints probably to be fused into this one.
Domitius, Martyr in Syria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Two holy Dometii or Domitii our Elders have long since given in the Acts, the one on the eighth of March, of whose deeds nothing has been found, and who is there said to have rested in peace; the other a glorious Martyr, born of Phrygia, who on a certain day, Synonymous Saints in the Greek Fasti when equestrian games were being held, and sacrifices were being offered to impure demons, could no longer contain himself, but, inflamed with divine zeal, came forth into the midst of the circus, devoting Julian the apostate to anathema, and spitting upon the worshippers of idols, and mocking the falsely-called gods. This man, seized and thrust into prison, when he refused to deny Christ, within a few days … submitted his sacred neck to the sword and was beheaded. Nothing is added, from which we might be made more certain of the place of the martyrdom. A third St. Dometius the Menology of Sirletus in Canisius suggests, on the seventh of August, and him too a Martyr, a Persian by race, clad in the habit of the monks, who, for the confession of the Christian faith, being stoned by Julian the apostate with two disciples, received the crown of martyrdom. Nor here is the arena of the combat expressed, for although he is said to have come into the city of Nisibis, and there to have been baptized, from the Menaea it is established that he departed thence, and elsewhere practiced the monastic life. For the rest, you have here from the Greek Fasti two holy Dometii, both Martyrs, both who suffered by Julian, or at least under Julian.
[2] Concerning St. Dometius crowned by the same Apostate, another history is narrated in the Paschal Chronicle, whether they are different from him of whom the Paschal Chronicle speaks. published by Du Cange, page 297, which I here subjoin whole from his version: In this year (363) St. Dometius underwent martyrdom in this manner. When Julian was setting out to war and was passing through the district of Cyrrhus, he saw a crowd standing before the cave of St. Dometius, to be healed; he asked who that man was: and having learned that he was a monk, and that the people were being gathered there that they might obtain health, and receive a blessing from him, the same Julian announced these things to St. Dometius through the Referendary, who was a Christian: If, in order to please thy God, thou hast entered this cave, do not seek to please men, but live solitary. To whom St. Dometius answered: My soul and body having long since been consecrated to God, I shut myself up in this cave: but the people coming to me out of faith I cannot keep away. Julian therefore commanded the cave to be walled up, and the just man, St. Dometius, remaining within, ended his life. Thus far the Chronicle. It is now asked whether, under characters in appearance different, here expressed, three different holy Dometii, or at least two, are described; or whether perhaps there is one and the same Phrygian and Persian, into whom the different accounts may fit.
[3] The last Baronius seems to have supposed, when at the year of Christ 363, Baronius confused two. number 38, he writes thus: But it happened that when Julian was at Nisibis, Dometius, a most holy Christian monk, by nation a Persian, rose up against him with great constancy, reproaching the apostasy by which, having become a deserter of piety, he waged war on behalf of demons against the Saints. Which he, bearing with an indignant mind, soon ordered him to be killed with two of his disciples by stones. With the peace of the most Eminent Analyst be it said, it is not sufficiently established that Julian ever came to Nisibis, nor do the Menaea or the Menology indicate this, nor do they mark the place where St. Dometius suffered martyrdom with his disciples: much less do they note that that holy Persian monk reproached Julian with apostasy,
since these things are attributed by the Greeks to that other St. Dometius, of whom we spoke from the Acts on the twenty-third of March, who, being born of Phrygia and beheaded, does not seem able to be sufficiently rightly combined with the Persian monk who was killed with stones, so that consequently, if the Greek Fasti are supposed true, and no disturbance about the circumstances of the history has crept into them, it is necessary at least for a while to distinguish two Dometii.
[4] He seems to be the same as in the Paschal Chronicle But what of St. Dometius the Persian and St. Dometius of the Paschal Chronicle? It would surely be strange if three synonymous Martyrs at the same time, in the same place, and under the same Apostate, were slain for the faith of Christ: nor does that seem to be admitted for the reason that Papebroch noted on the Greek-Muscovite Calendar, the seventh of August, page 37, that that Dometius with two disciples was a monk in Palestine and suffered under Julian, as it is contained in the epitome of the Acts. Understand it in the printed Menaea, where on the said day the seventh of August, that Persian monk with two companions is said to have withdrawn to the monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, and at last, by Julian's order, to have been overwhelmed with stones together with them. It does not follow from this, I say, for although we admit that he was in Palestine, and had companions, and was stoned, if the rest be attended to, the narrative comes very close to the history of the Paschal Chronicle. For from that monastery St. Dometius fled, and at last entered a certain cave made by human hand, and, having tarried there for some time, began to receive and benefit with many divine favors those who came to him in the name of Christ. Whatever therefore several circumstances of his life are adduced in the Menaea, there is the highest concord in the chief point of his dwelling and his miracles, nor does the kind of martyrdom differ so greatly, for St. Dometius could first have been assailed with stones, and have withdrawn into the cave, which being walled up, he there ended his life. I certainly do not so far see why those two histories cannot come together into one and the same Saint. That this may be more clearly perceived, I subjoin the elogium of the Menaea itself from the version of Rader's manuscript in our possession:
[5] and is described in the Menaea, This Domitius lived in the reign of Constantine the Great, a Persian by race, instructed in the Christian faith by a certain Christian Abarus; having left the superstition of his fatherland and put off all affection toward his kindred, he came to the borders of the Persians and Romans into the city of Nisibis, where, having entered a monastery, and been washed in the sacred font, he put on the religious habit: but from his great zeal for virtue and the religious life and his progress, the envy of his fellow monks being stirred up by the instinct of the devil, he fled from them into the monastery of the holy Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus, and emulated the life of Urbelus the archimandrite, who, they say, within sixty years tasted no cooked food, nor ever lay down, nor sat, but, leaning on a staff, performed all the offices of nature and necessity. By his suffrage Domitius was made Deacon, and when he wished to advance him to the dignity of the priesthood, the Saint withdrew thence, and, having climbed a certain mountain, exposed himself to all the injuries of the sky, to the cold, I say, the heat, and the other occasions of patience. Hence, having entered a certain cave made by human hand, and having tarried there for some time, he began to receive and benefit with many divine favors those who came to him in the name of Christ, and to bring over many mortals from the worship of idols to the faith of Christ. Which when the impious Julian, having set out for those places, learned, he ordered St. Domitius to be overwhelmed with stones. Those sent to kill him found him with two disciples singing the praises of the Third Hour, whom with his companions they cast down with frequent stoning and killed.
[6] Both histories did not say everything, so that they mutually exceed and are exceeded; with whom also the Phrygian may be confounded. but the whole substance of the matter seems able to be so easily reconciled, that on that head the holy Domitii are by no means to be multiplied. And if it be permitted to suppose for a while that the Greeks erred, who on the twenty-third of March said Domitius was born of Phrygia, the kind of martyrdom also being changed, there will remain no great offense against identifying this one too with the other two, and his being consequently the sole, one, and only Martyr St. Domitius or Dometius under Julian in Syria Cyrrhestica; and this one may admit the more easily, because the Menology of Canisius, translated by Sirletus, does not mark Dometius separately on the twenty-third of March, but a certain Domitius with a companion and female companions, who under the same class could be collected in the Acts. In the Greek-Muscovite Calendar no Dometius is known on the said day the twenty-third of March: but who is known in the Menaea somewhere by name alone is Dometion; who forbids one to say he is different, of whose deeds, since nothing had been handed down to memory, the author of the Menology, compiled by order of the Emperor Basil, took those things which are referred to the twenty-third of March from the seventh of August, and fitted them word for word to that Dometion of his, as I clearly detect from the comparison of both elogia; so that consequently that author does not merit the greatest credit, since he seems to have transformed the fatherland and the kind of death. But of these things it may be treated again on the seventh of August, on which St. Dometius was transferred into the Roman from the Menology, whose encomium is clearly contracted from the Menaea.
[7] These things had to be discussed first, that we might come to that St. Domitius, [He who is venerated by the Latins on this day is the same of whom the bishop of Tours speaks.] whose birthday was first marked on this day in the Little Roman of Rosweyde: In Syria, St. Domitius the Martyr, to which, that he might add something, Ado found nothing singular except these words: Who by his virtues bestows many benefits on the inhabitants, described by Usuard and others, which, unless I am most vehemently mistaken, openly indicate that Ado consulted Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Martyrs chapter 100, whom we here transcribe whole: Domitius indeed, another Martyr, is held in this region, who, though he bestows many benefits on the inhabitants, nevertheless heals with swift power those who suffer from the hip; for it is said that the Saint himself, while he was placed in the body, was held by that pain. Finally, when, as we have said, he healed many laboring in this necessity, a certain Jew, seized by that same infirmity, sought the Saint's basilica devoutly, although he did not believe in Christ, and, ordering himself to be laid at the door of the atrium, crying out that he was unworthy to enter the holy threshold; for he said: I know indeed, glorious Martyr, that I am blinded by the veil of the law, to whom thou mayest disdain to impart mercy, but now I flee to thee, and as a suppliant I beg thy mercy, that, the bodily infirmity being first turned away, thou mayest pluck out the languor of unbelief. When he had confessed these things before the gate of the hall, night coming on, he fell asleep; but the blessed Martyr did not put off having mercy for a long space of time. Therefore, visiting the sick man that night through a dream, he bade him depart whole. And he, being awakened, feels himself restored to soundness, and, having confessed Christ the Son of God to be the Savior of the world, departed whole. Which the Christians seeing, who were held by that same infirmity, bring complaints to the Saint, saying: Behold, we, having well confessed God, have not yet deserved to be freed, and this man, unbelieving in Christ the King, circumcised in flesh, not in heart, departs whole. And saying these things, in anger they began to shatter the lamps of the basilica, which hung from the vault. But neither to these was the mercy sought lacking, for on that very day, being healed, they returned to their own homes.
[8] Probably all are to be fused into one. However wonderful that beneficence of St. Domitius toward those Christians may seem to someone, it is necessary to shake the authority of Gregory, who would deny credit to the history. This chiefly is here disputed, whether that St. Domitius, described by Gregory, of whose festivity or birthday he himself does not speak, whether, I say, he is different from that Domitius whom the Martyrologies, after the Little Roman and Ado, on this day everywhere commemorate; which Baronius plainly insinuates in his notes on the Martyrology: Another, he says, this one seems from him of whom Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Martyrs chapter 100, treats, bringing forward no reason for his assertion. If it be permitted to conjecture anything, it is probable that the most Eminent man thought that Gregory there does not speak of some Syrian Martyr, such as is plainly announced in the Martyrology. But indeed, if the preceding chapters of St. Gregory be attended to, it is evident that he there commemorates not European Saints, but those who rest in Syria, in which region also Domitius is held, to whom therefore all the sayings of Gregory apply; and so, if the several things be rightly weighed and compared, it must at last be confessed that the present-day Domitius is no other than the Persian Dometius of the Menaea and the Menology, than the Dometius of the Paschal Chronicle, perhaps not even than that Dometius of whom we said we treated on the twenty-third of March. Thus far let it be permitted to think, and if anything more probable be found in the meantime, it will be examined on the said day the seventh of August.