ON THE HOLY MARTYRS BIANOR AND SILVANUS IN PISIDIA. A notice from the Greek Fasti.
Bianor, Martyr in Pisidia (S.)
Silvanus, Martyr in Pisidia (S.)
I. P.
That that sacred pair of Martyrs was held in no ordinary veneration among the Greeks, is abundantly clear even from the Menology alone, rendered into Latin by Sirleto, which thus proclaims concerning them: On the same day (X July), of the blessed Martyrs Bianor and Silvanus, The cult of SS. Bianor and Silvanus of whom St. Bianor, from the province of Pisidia, was seized on account of the confession of Christ by Severianus, Governor of the Isaurians of the city of Euphratesia *, when he was compelled to deny Christ, and was not persuaded; grievously beaten and hung up, he was burned with balls of fire; nay, even his teeth were torn out and his ears cut off. But a certain Silvanus, seeing the endurance of Bianor, believed in Christ, and straightway his tongue was cut off: afterward his head too was torn from his shoulders. But St. Bianor, his ankles being pierced, his right eye gouged out, and the skin of his head torn off, submitted his neck to the sword, and thus was crowned with martyrdom. And hence they passed into the Roman Martyrology, in which they are thus announced on this day: In Pisidia, of the holy Martyrs Bianor and Silvanus; who, having suffered most savage things for the name of Christ, are at last crowned, their necks being cut off.
[2] With the Menology of Sirleto the printed Menæa nearly word for word agree on this same day, from the Greek and Latin registers. the Index of the said Menæa moreover reporting the same. The Supplement to the printed Menæa, from the Synaxarion of Sirmond and the Manuscript of Chifflet, notes these holy Martyrs on the IX of this month with a eulogy which nearly word for word coincides with Sirleto's: and it is noted at the end of the said eulogy that Sirmond has the same, but on this X day. The little verses which are prefixed to the eulogy run thus:
Οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν ἑλεῖν στεῤῥὰν φύσιν, Μάρτυς Βιάνωρ, οὐδὲ τοῦ ξίφους βίᾳ. Ὄφθη παταχθεὶς Σιλουάνος τῷ ξίφει Ἄλλος Σιλωάμ, ἐξιλόμηνος πάθη.
They could not take away your strong spirits, noble Bianor, though with great force the sword raged against you. Silvanus, when, struck by the sword, you fall, you seem another Siloam, purging away evils.
The word βίᾳ alludes to the proper name Bianor; but to Silvanus, Σιλωάμ (Siloam); by which is signified the fountain of Jerusalem, beside which a pool, John 9, v. 7, is named ἡ κολυμβήτρα τοῦ Σιλωάμ, that is, the swimming-place of Siloam, in whose waters the man blind from birth, being washed, recovered his sight. Furthermore, a place is given to the Martyrs also in the Manuscript Menæa of the Ambrosian Library and in Maximus, Bishop of Cythera; to which add the Basilian Synaxarion, whose month of July is had in Greek at the end of Volume 1 of the aforesaid month. But since the eulogy placed there nearly coincides with Sirleto's, given above, there was no need to render it here into Latin and commit it to print, any more than the other things suppressed by us above.
Annotation* The Basilian Menology: of Isauria.