ON ST. CINDEUS, PRESBYTER AND MARTYR,
AT SIDE IN PAMPHYLIA.
From the Roman Martyrology and the Greek Synaxaries.
Under Diocletian.
CommentaryCindeus, Presbyter and Martyr, at Side in Pamphylia (S.)
J. P.
The annual memory of St. Cindeus, Cindaeus, or even Syndeus, is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, which thus announces him: At Side in Pamphylia, of St. Cindeus the presbyter, who under the Emperor Diocletian and Stratonicus the Governor through many torments came to the palm. What the Roman Martyrology has of this Saint; Sirletus had gone before, somewhat longer: On the same day (the eleventh of July) of Cindeus the presbyter. This man, from the town of Telmedia at Side in Pamphylia, under the Emperor Diocletian, led to Stratonicus the governor, confessed Christ. Wherefore, clothed in iron shoes, fitted with nails driven in, he ran to the gate. Afterward cast into the fire, he escaped unharmed, and having prayed to God, gave up his spirit: whose precious relics a certain Orestes, an Umanadensian by race, a deacon of Christ, translated to his own country, took care to have laid up by the hands of priests according to the custom of the ancestors.
[2] The elogium of this holy Martyr the Basilian Synaxary composes otherwise: the Basilian Synaxary, The Martyr of Christ Cindaeus was a presbyter in the church which is in the city of Side, in the reign of Diocletian. And when he had been denounced to Stratonicus, because he worshipped Christ, he was seized, and clothed in iron shoes, into which sharp nails were fixed, and was compelled to run along the road which leads to the gate which was called sacred, being beaten by the lictors. When the command had been received that they should burn him, the lictors met a certain poor man carrying a load of wood, that he might sell it, and thence sustain his life. And when they wished to seize it without paying the price, and to burn the Saint, he himself paid out the price and gave it to the poor man; and with the wood placed upon his own shoulders, he came to the place of martyrdom: and after the furnace was kindled, he entered into it: and when he came out of it unharmed, he led the priest of the idols, together with his wife, to the faith of Christ. At last, when he had prayed, he gave up his spirit. And his body was honorably buried.
[3] Partly agree, partly differ the things which the Supplement to the printed Greek Menaea relates from the Synaxary of Sirmond and the Manuscript of Chifflet: and the Supplement to the printed Greek Menaea; in which the Martyr is set down as τὸ γένος Οὐμαναδεὺς, an Umanadensian by race: by which patronymic perhaps it is indicated that he was sprung from Umana, which place Cellarius, in his Ancient Geography, volume 2, book 3, chapter 23, page 295, places in Galilee. Unless you prefer that Omana be designated (in Greek called Ὀμάνα), an emporium of Arabia Felix according to Stephanus and Pliny; according to Arrian an emporium of Persis, as Ortelius hands down in his Geographical Thesaurus. Choose either place; or if you want neither, expound a third, more suitable than the two former, sought by me in vain. But let us proceed in the Supplement. There the price is expressed, given by the holy Martyr for the wood, φόλεις τριάκοντα, thirty coins; of whose value see Du Cange. Add that, the Martyr being unharmed by the fire, ἀέρος μετὰ ἀστραπῶν καὶ βροντῶν κλονουμένου, αἰθρίαν πολλὴν καὶ εὐδίαν γενέσθαι, the air being troubled by lightnings and thunders, a great serenity and calm came about.
[4] where certain singular things are related. The priest of the idols, and his wife, converted to Christ, are there related, that ἀποστείλασαν τὸν θεράπαιναν αὐτῆς κηδεῦσαι τὸ τοῦ Μάρτυρος λείψανον μύροις καὶ σινδόσι, καὶ ὁύτως ἔτυχον ἀμφότεροι τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος· that, I say, they sent her (the wife's) maidservant to honor the body of the holy Martyr with spices and clean linens: and that thus both obtained holy baptism. Equally singular is the little history which there follows: Ὀρέστης δέ τις, τὸ γένος Οὐμαναδεὺς, διάκονος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, λαβὼν τὰ λείψανα μετὰ τῆς ἁγίας αὐτου κεφαλῆς τοῦ Ἁγίου, καὶ ἀρθεὶς κατὰ τὸν Ἀβακοὺμ διὰ μίας ἡμέρας ἀπὸ τῆς Παμφιλίας ἦκεν ἐν Οὐμανάδοις εἰς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ πατρίδα, καὶ στήσας τὸν σορὸν, κατέθετο τὰ ἅγια λείψανα διὰ χειρῶν ἰερέων, καθὼς τόπος ἐστὶ τοῖς Ἁγιόις κατατίθεσθαι. But a certain Orestes, an Umanadensian by race, a deacon of Christ, when he had received the body with the head of the Saint himself, and had been carried up, in one day, like another Habakkuk, from Pamphylia he came into the parts of the Umanadensians, his country, and having built a tomb, buried his body by the hands of priests, as it is fitting for the Saints to be buried. These things there; the trustworthiness of which rests with the writer who hands them down.
[5] Verses about it are given with our correction. Meanwhile we shall not omit the little verses prefixed to the elogium of the said Supplement:
Οὐκ ἄξιόν τι καύσεως ὅλως ἔχων, Σωθεὶς πυρὸς τέθνηκας ὁύτω Κινδαῖε.
Having nothing at all that would be worthy of burning, saved from the fire, you fall by death, Cindaeus. In our Manuscript it is written καυχήσεως, without doubt by mistake; since καύχησις signifies boasting: and so the sense would then be: having nothing that would be worthy of boasting, etc., which certainly in the subject matter is off the mark, not to say absurd, and, if you regard the laws of iambic verse, over-measured, as will be plain to one measuring the verse, one syllable being redundant. I have therefore substituted καύσεως; for καῦσις signifies burning. And indeed how easily in copying the transcript could καυχήσεως be intruded for καύσεως? To the same Supplement almost verbatim agree the things which we have excerpted from the Menaea of the Ambrosian library, in which, however, no mention is made of the meeting with the poor man, of which above.