ON ST. MARCIANUS, MARTYR,
AT ICONIUM IN CAPPADOCIA.
His cult from the Roman Martyrology and the Greek Synaxaries.
Perhaps in the Year 243.
CommentaryMarcianus, Martyr, at Iconium in Cappadocia (S.)
J. P.
The Menaea of the Ambrosian library, the Menaeum of Chifflet, the Supplement to the printed Menaea from the Synaxary of Sirmond and the Manuscript of Chifflet, celebrate the memory of this holy Martyr; in this last place thus announced: Announcements of the holy Martyr Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ ὁ ἅγιος Μαρκιανὸς μαχαίρᾳ τελ. On the same eleventh day of July St. Marcianus consummates his martyrdom by the sword: to whose triumph these little verses are sung:
Ὑπῆρχε θήκη, Μαρκιανὲ, σὸς φάρυγξ, Χωροῦσα τὸν μαχαίραν ἣν κατεκρίθης.
O Marcianus, your throat became the sheath of the sword, by which, pierced, you undergo death.
[2] There follows a brief narrative of the martyrdom in these words; which from the name of Sirmond prefixed I gather to have been taken from his Synaxary: Οὗτος νέος ὢν προσήχθη Περινίῳ τῷ ἄρχοντι ἐν τῇ Ἰκονιέων πόλει· καὶ διὰ τὸν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν ξέεται, καὶ ἐπὶ ἐσχάρας πεπυρακτομήνης τίθεται, καὶ μαχαίραις τὸν γλῶσσαν κατακεντεῖται, καὶ τὸ τελευταῖον τὸν κεφαλὴν ἀποτέμνεται. This man, when he was a youth, was led to the governor Perinius in the city of Iconium, and for the confession of Christ is scraped, is set upon a burning grate, has his tongue pricked through with swords, and at last is beheaded. With these agree the excerpts from the Menaea of the Ambrosian library. Nearly the same has Sirletus: from whom the holy Martyr was received into the Roman, announcing him thus: At Iconium, of St. Marcianus the Martyr, who under Perennius the governor through many torments came to the palm.
[3] with an elogium, A fuller elogium has the Basilian Synaxary, whose month of July was published at the end of the first volume of the same month; which I thus render into Latin: Marcianus, Martyr of Christ, was of the city of Iconium. And when he was a youth, and instructed in the faith of Christ and baptized, he preached the true faith, and refuted the falsity and weakness of the idols, and stopped the mouths of the idolaters. Seized by them, handed over to the Governor, and led to interrogation, he was compelled, now indeed by promises of fleeting and false honor, now by threats, to deny Christ and to sacrifice to the idols. And when he could not be led to this by the Governor's words, but rather confessed Christ before the people, after he had been beaten, he is shut up in prison. And after this, bound, and having gone out of prison, when he stood before the Governor and clung to the same confession, his face was scraped with iron, his sinews cut, his tongue cut out with a knife, and he was placed on a burning grate. And at last, beheaded with the sword, he completed the course of martyrdom.
[4] and an observation on the time of the martyrdom. Observe in passing, that here the name of the Governor Perennius is suppressed: who perhaps is the same who is in Baronius at the year 243, number 4; which being posited, you have whence to form a judgment concerning the time of St. Marcianus's contest. And these are the things that occur to be said about the holy Martyr; more things lie hidden from us.