ON THE HOLY MARTYRS JUSTINA AND ZENO
AT TRIESTE IN ISTRIA.
From Ferrarius.
Perhaps in the 3rd century.
CommentaryJustina, Martyr at Trieste in Istria (S.)
Zeno, Martyr at Trieste in Istria (S.)
J. B. S.
When Papebroch, while doing something else, had lighted upon these Saints, elsewhere wholly unknown, more than forty years ago he wrote to Trieste, more than once, to our Father Charles Vitellius, that he might try to obtain more distinct notices, Unknown in the sacred Fasti, whence he might become a little more certain of their deeds, age, and cult. Vitellius answered on the IX of April 1679, that nothing was there found beyond a narration, inserted in some old Breviary of the cathedral church of that same city, which Papebroch had scarcely inspected when he immediately noticed that it was plainly abridged from the Acts of St. Dorothea and Theophilus, the very name of the governor Sapritius being kept, but the names of Dorothea changed into Justina, and of Theophilus into Zeno, the chief substance of the whole passion remaining the same in both; which is wonderful, that it escaped the eyes of Ferrarius, so much so that in his annotation he did not hesitate to assert that the Acts of these Martyrs are read as accurately written, and that he had detected nothing controverted or improbable in them. Wonderful, I say, when even to boys the Legend of St. Dorothea is known, and most well-known the history of the flowers and heavenly apples sent by an angel to Theophilus, which, that we may not deny it, might have happened prodigiously once and again, so are not so lightly to be admitted as genuine, which are most openly detected to be borrowed from other Acts.
[2] What? that even the Legend of St. Dorothea herself, both on account of the variety of copies, they are adorned from the Legend of St. Dorothea, and on account of other things, is today reckoned by many of less worth than Bolland seems to have esteemed it. Add indeed that these Saints Justina and Zeno are nowhere at all recorded in any sacred Fasti, and that Ferrarius could teach nothing distinct concerning their cult. But that the Acts sent to us and the compendium of Ferrarius are not altogether conformable, appears from this, that in his account another governor is named, perhaps cautiously changed by some copyist, lest the committed plagiarism should too much strike the eyes. The general Catalogue of the praised writer, from which Castellanus without doubt here received his account, announces thus: At Trieste in Istria, of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, under Diocletian with Zeno; and in the notes are alleged the tablets of the church of Trieste, from which Nicolaus Manzolus, doctor of laws, published the Legend in Italian in his history of Istria, edited in 1611, which, while I consult it, I find to be the very same which Vitellius sent hither, with this alone excepted, that in Manzolus, whether by chance or design I know not, for Sapritius there is substituted, not Fabianus, as Ferrarius had read, but Fabricius: which it will suffice here to have indicated in a word. Since therefore there are no other notices beyond the aforesaid history, that we may spare superfluous words, we shall be content to describe the compendium of Ferrarius. Thus it reads:
[3] of which here some compendium. Justina, a virgin of Trieste, born of Christian parents, aged fourteen years, when, on account of the beauty of her form, being sought in marriage by many, she said that she was betrothed to Christ, to whom she had vowed her virginity, being accused before Fabianus the governor and brought to him, was ordered to sacrifice to the gods, and when she called the gods demons, Fabianus gave the Virgin the choice either of worshipping the gods, or of undergoing torments, and first commanded her, beaten with blows because she freely despised the gods, to be stretched out and beaten with rods, then, hung upon the rack, to be torn with claws about the breasts. But she, giving thanks to Christ, sought strength and constancy of mind, whereby she might, triumphing over the enemy, attain to paradise. Being condemned by the governor to be struck with the sword, when a certain one of the first men before the governor, by name Zeno, said in jest to the Virgin: Bride of Christ, send me apples from the paradise of your bridegroom; as she was being led to punishment, she gave a little handkerchief to a little child, to be carried to Zeno, saying: Tell him: Justina the virgin of Christ sends you the apples which you asked for from the paradise of her bridegroom. The Virgin therefore being beheaded, her body was given by the Christians to burial, on the third day before the Ides of July, under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, in the year of salvation 289. But Zeno, when he had received the little handkerchief from the boy, and said, It will be good for wiping the face; while he wipes his face with it before the household of the governor, felt himself suddenly changed, seized with so great a love of Christ, that he did not hesitate publicly to extol His name. Wherefore, being brought before the governor, and summoned by him and reproached for madness, when he answered: What evil do I do, if I praise the name of Christ, the true and only God, who received Justina the virgin to himself, and deigned to receive me as a servant? he was ordered to be beaten with leaded whips until he breathed out his soul, and when he did not cease to extol the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, his tongue was cut out, and at last his head was struck off on the aforesaid day.