ON ST. PONTIAN, BISHOP AND MARTYR
AT TODI IN UMBRIA.
Under Diocletian
Notice from Ferrarius.
Pontian, Bishop and Martyr, at Todi in Umbria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Tuder, or Tudertum, an episcopal city of Umbria, Bollandus described sufficiently on the 29th of January, treating of St. Seustius and the other 80 Martyrs, to whose fellowship that St. Pontian the bishop most nearly pertains, thou wilt understand from the Offices of the church of Todi, First noted by Ferrarius which Ferrarius cites in his compendium, alone, if I mistake not, and first, who suggested all those Martyrs, unknown to the other Martyrologists, in his Catalogue, adorned by Jacobillus with somewhat more words, from whom we learn at least this, that the proper lessons were approved by the sacred Congregation, which, without doubt, Ferrarius's narration plainly contains, to which John Baptist Possevinus added nothing of great moment in his history of the Saints of Todi, bringing forward the longer Acts of St. Cassian, to be examined on the 13th of August. From the same fountain of Ferrarius Ughellus drew, in the Bishops of Todi, number 2, so that consequently one Ferrarius may suffice us, whose annotation also we describe, by which he tries to explain some difficulty, as far as could be done: the rest may be discussed and illustrated anew in the already mentioned Acts of St. Cassian, likewise bishop of Todi. Thus has the praised Ferrarius in his Catalogue:
[2] Pontian the bishop, ruling the church of Todi in the most savage persecution of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian against the Christians, with an elogium from the Todi tablets, lay hidden in the cistern of a certain pious matron of Todi (whose son Seustius, nephew of the Proconsul Ablavius, he had instructed together with his mother in the Christian religion): when Ablavius, raging against his fellow-citizens, brought death upon eighty together with Seustius, and came to that woman's house, to confiscate her goods. Where, having found the holy Bishop, he drew him out of that cistern, and, before he came to interrogations and questions, because he had converted his nephew Seustius, a little before slaughtered by him, to Christ, he ordered a part of his skin, like a girdle, to be cruelly stripped from head to heel. When Pontian, being interrogated, had answered with free voice that he was a Christian, and that he was ready to die for Christ, that he might become a partaker of His passion and resurrection, he is led away bound to Rome, where, by the Emperor's order, bound with iron chains, he is cast into prison, and committed to the custody of Cassian, son of Ablavius; who, converted by Pontian to Christ, and instructed in the precepts of the Christian faith, afterward succeeded him in the episcopate, and consummated an illustrious martyrdom for Christ. Pontian, when he had presided over the church of Todi some years, and had begotten many to Christ by his preaching, after prisons, chains, and other torments, at length a glorious martyr passed to Christ on the 7th of the Ides of July.
[3] Several things occur in these worthy of observation, which we have already said are to be examined on the 13th of August. concerning which the scruple of Ferrarius. One is that which cast a scruple upon Ferrarius. Concerning Ablavius, he says, it can be doubted: whom, under Constantine the Great, Consul, and having discharged the office of the Praetorium, after Constantine had submitted his neck to the Christian faith, and at length, under Constantius, son of Constantine, when he had begun to reign, beheaded, Baronius reports in the ecclesiastical Annals. Unless someone will maintain that this one is different from that one, or that the same flourished under Diocletian and Constantine, his life being prolonged for many years: which, however, seems less probable, since nothing is read among the Writers concerning this matter. But of this and other things we shall treat in their place.