ON ST. SUMMIVA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, WITH HER COMPANIONS MALE OR FEMALE,
IN NORWAY.
Notice from Grevenus.
Summiva, Virgin and Martyr, in Norway (S.)
Companions, male or female, in Norway.
J. B. S.
Summiva, Sumniva, or Suniva, Hermann Greven first suggested to us on this day in his additions to Usuard in this manner: Of Sumniva the virgin and her companions the martyrs, who, having gone forth from Ireland, obtained the crowns of martyrdom in Norway. This Saint received from Grevenus by the more recent, This one, before Grevenus, we know inserted in no Martyrology; and it is certain that from that fountain Molanus, Canisius, Ferrarius, and any other more recent Martyrologists there be, drew; and before the rest the Irish, among whom our Henry Fitzsimon, who in his first Kalendar of the Irish Saints had passed over St. Summiva, or rather did not know her, in the fuller table afterward expressly placed her on the 8th of July with seven companions in Norway, citing Canisius, who no more expressed the number of the Companions than Grevenus. In the Scottish Menology of Dempster there is the same false citation of Canisius: In Norway, of Summiva the Virgin and seven Companions (feminine), which is another wrong interpretation, since Canisius reads in German not "companions" (feminine), but "companions" (masculine).
[2] All these things, I think, the oft-praised Claude Castellanus, commonly called the most diligent re-digger of the Saints, saw, she is passed over by Castellanus: and yet did not dare to ascribe St. Summiva, either alone or with companions, to his Universal Martyrology, content with this note, that, the name being placed in the general index, he added the letter o, by which he signifies that he omitted such a one. Although great is my esteem for that man's authority in these matters, I would not, however, acquiesce in his judgment; but, other Northern monuments being consulted, though I have not found that Saint in the Vita Aquilonia of John Vastovius, yet I certainly found those things which certainly prove that in Sweden she was once truly honored with a more solemn ecclesiastical cult with her companions, under the name of Suniva. There is with us a very old Missal, once used in Sweden, which Papebroch called the Votivale, printed, as the characters show, toward the end of the fifteenth century, or the beginning of the following, in whose prefixed Kalendar the name of St. Suniva is most clearly expressed on the 8th of July, and to it, on the same day in its place, is fitted a Mass of this kind:
[3] The title is: The Office of St. Suniva. The Introit, They shall entreat your countenance, etc. but her cult is established from the Swedish Missal. The Prayer: To our supplications, we beseech, almighty God, incline the ears of your piety, that we who keep the feasts of St. Suniva the virgin and martyr and of her companions may be fortified by their protection, and freed from all adversities. The Epistle, The Saints through faith. The Gradual, Glorious is God in his Saints. The Gospel, The kingdom of heaven is like to ten Virgins, with the rest from the common of Virgins and Martyrs. I should not easily believe that from a Northern Missal of this kind St. Summiva came to the notice of Grevenus, since from it only the cult could become known, but not the coming from Ireland into Norway, where she underwent martyrdom with her companions male or female; which perhaps could have been taken from some Breviary of the same Swedish kingdom. Whether they rest on faith certain enough, I would not indeed venture to define. But whether she more probably had companions male, or female virgins; whether she was carried off from Ireland by barbarians or Norwegian pirates, as Vitus testifies below; by whom and in what manner she was put to martyrdom, I will not investigate at length.
[4] Of her age and deeds all things are uncertain. Enough time, and perhaps too much, I spent in seeking that I might elucidate a most obscure matter; but in vain: for there is everywhere deep silence or mere darkness concerning St. Summiva and her companions male or female, martyrs. There is cited in the oft-mentioned manuscript collectanea of the Reverend Fathers the Irish Minorites of Louvain our Stephen Vitus, as having left thus written in the Cornix deplumata Calidonia, book 1: St. Summiva, a Scottish virgin of Ireland, who with seven companion virgins of Ireland were taken by the tyrant plunderers, the pagan Norsemen, and carried into Norway, where by the example of her innocent life, and the constancy of her chastity to be maintained, and the showing of miracles, she converted some Norwegians to Christ. These things indeed are opportunely enough devised, but would please more, if they were confirmed by some more ancient testimony. For the rest, from them nothing at all is drawn by which the certain age, deeds, virtues, or miracles of this Saint, or of her companions male or female, may be discerned, much less illustrated by us; so that here it must be altogether stopped.